BL  240  .H68  1923 
Howard ,  Henry,  1859- 
The  church  which  is 


1 


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in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/churchwhichishisOOhowa 


THE  CHURCH  WHICH  IS  HIS  BODY 


THE  CHURCH 
WHICH  IS  HIS  BODY 

STUDIED  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF 
BIOLOGICAL  RESEARCH 

By 

HENRY  HOWARD 


PUBLISHED  FOR  THE 
FERN  LEY  LECTURE  TRUST 


LONDON 

THE  EPWORTH  PRESS 

J.  ALFRED  SHARP 


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

My  warmest  thanks  are  hereby  given  to  Sir 
Charles  Sherrington,  C.B.E.,D.Sc.,  LL.D.,F.R.S. 
(Oxford)  ;  to  Professor  J.  S.  Haldane,  M.D., 
LL.D.,  F.R.S.  (Oxford)  ;  and  to  T.  B.  Heaton, 
M.A.,  M.D.  (Oxford),  who  have  graciously 
accorded  me  privileged  and  prolonged  consulta¬ 
tions,  giving  me  most  generous  assistance  in  the 
way  of  suggestion,  checking  my  scientific  refer¬ 
ences,  and  permitting  me  to  the  extent  of  my 
ability  to  help  myself  from  the  rich  stores  of 
their  highly  specialized  knowledge,  harvested 
from  many  years  of  scientific  study  and  research. 


First  Edition,  July,  1923 


Made  and  Printed  in  Great  Britain 

h 

Southampton  Times  Limited,  Southampton 


CONTENTS 


Prologue  .  7 

Introductory  ....  14 

I.  Organization  ......  20 

II.  Metabolism 

1.  ANABOLISM  40 

2.  KATABOLISM  71 

hi.  Development . 82 

iv.  Differentiation  of  Function  ...  93 

1.  PROPHECY  .....  II4 

2.  MINISTRY  .....  122 

3.  TEACHING  I  PARTS  I  AND  II  .  .  I32 

4.  EXHORTING  ....  155 

5.  GIVING  .....  I70 

6.  LEADERSHIP  ....  l8o 

7.  CONSOLATION  ....  I9O 

v.  Reproduction  ;  or,  The  Missionary  Im¬ 

perative  .  .  .  .  .  .198 

vi.  Epilogue . 211 


‘  Truth  indeed  came  once  into  the  world  with  her  divine 
Master,  and  was  a  perfect  shape  most  glorious  to  look  on  ;  but 
when  He  ascended  and  His  Apostles  after  Him  were  laid  asleep, 
then  straight  arose  a  wicked  race  of  deceivers,  who  as  that  story 
goes  of  the  Egyptian  Typhon  with  his  conspirators,  how  they 
dealt  with  good  Osiris,  took  the  virgin  Truth,  hewed  her  lovely 
form  into  a  thousand  pieces  and  scattered  them  to  the  four 
winds.  From  that  time  ever  since,  the  sad  friends  of  Truth  such 
as  durst  appear,  imitating  the  careful  search  that  Isis  made  for 
the  mangled  body  of  Osiris,  went  up  and  down,  gathering  up 
limb  by  limb  still  as  they  could  find  them.  We  have  not  yet 
found  them  all,  lords  and  commons,  nor  ever  shall  do,  till  her 
Master’s  second  coming  ;  He  shall  bring  together  every  joint 
and  member,  and  shall  mould  them  into  an  immortal  feature  of 
loveliness  and  perfection.’  ‘  Areopagitica  ’ :  A  Speech  for  the 
Liberty  of  Unlicensed  Printing. — John  Milton. 


PROLOGUE 


Biological  research  has  noted  certain  outstanding 
characteristics  which  physical  life  everywhere  exhibits 
through  all  its  multiplied  manifestations.  These  char¬ 
acteristics  have  been  variously  formulated  by  different 
workers  in  this  field,  but  as  to  their  existence  and  persist¬ 
ence  all  are  agreed.  This  lecture  is  an  attempt  to  provoke 
inquiry  as  to  whether,  and  to  what  degree,  the  corporate 
life  of  the  Christian  Church  bears  the  selfsame  marks  as 
distinguish  life  in  other  fields,  thereby  vindicating  its  right 
to  be  classified  as  a  living  organism,  and  to  be  construed 
as  the  veritable  body  of  Christ.  Whether  what  we  are 
accustomed  to  call  ‘  The  New  Life  ’  or  '  The  Second 
Birth  ’  is  to  be  interpreted  as  indeed  a  quite  new  and  plus 
quality  of  life,  requiring  to  be  generated  in  the  soul  from 
above,  by  a  specific  act  of  divine  impregnation,  or  whether 
we  may  regard  it  as  being  simply  a  lifting  up  of  what  we 
already  possess  of  life  to  a  higher  tide,  and  the  consequent 
flooding  of  hitherto  unvisited,  unvitalized  areas,  whose 
inhibited  forces  and  functions  it  straightway  releases, 
and  relates  to  consciousness  within,  and  to  service 
without,  we  may  not  stay  to  discuss. 

But  the  more  deeply  one  studies  these  great  themes 
the  stronger  grows  the  conviction  that  while  for  con¬ 
venience  sake  we  may  continue  to  speak  of  life  as  physical, 
intellectual,  moral,  or  spiritual,  as  the  case  may  be,  yet 

7 


8 


PROLOGUE 


care  must  be  taken,  lest,  in  the  use  of  such  terms,  we 
should  imagine  there  is  anything  approaching  to  scientific 
accuracy  in  the  classification  they  are  employed  to 
denote.  Between  these  realms  no  real  boundaries  can 
be  fixed.  Indeed  it  is  a  question  whether  the  time  may 
not  come  when  we  shall  have  so  to  recast  our  definition 
of  life  as  to  obliterate  the  distinction  hitherto  set  up 
between  ‘  organic  ’  and  ‘  inorganic/  and  thus  to  turn 
the  tables  so  completely  on  the  old  materialistic  position 
that  even  so-called  dead  matter  may  have  to  be  construed 
and  expressed  in  biological  terms.  ‘  The  idea  of  life/ 
says  Professor  Haldane,  ‘  is  nearer  to  reality  than  the 
ideas  of  matter  and  energy,  and  therefore  the  presupposi¬ 
tion  of  ideal  biology  is  that  inorganic  can  ultimately  be 
resolved  into  organic  phenomena,  and  that  the  physical 
world  is  thus  only  the  appearance  of  a  deeper  reality 
which  is  as  yet  hidden  from  our  distinct  vision,  and  can 
only  be  seen  dimly  with  the  eye  of  scientific  faith/1 

Professor  Arthur  Thomson,  in  his  Gifford  Lectures, 
1915-16,  complains  that  ‘  those  who  are  convinced  ol  the 
apartness  of  living  creatures  are  apt  to  fail  in  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  the  inorganic  domain/  He  quotes  Professor 
Enriques  with  approval  when  he  objects  to  what  he  calls 
the  ‘  false  antithesis  involved  in  opposing  the  spontaneity 
and  change  of  everything  that  fives  to  the  inertia  and 
immutability  of  matter/  4  The  view  seems  far  more 
adequate/  he  says,  ‘  which  holds  that  everything  around 
us  is  living  and  active,  save  for  a  difference  in  the  intensity 
or  rapidity  of  the  changes,  and  in  the  relative  importance 
of  the  internal  and  external  factors  for  the  course  of  the 

1  Mechanism,  Life  and  Personality,  pp.  104-5. 


PROLOGUE 


9 


phenomena/  It  is  useful,  however,  says  Thomson,  to 
keep  a  term  like  '  living  *  for  organisms  only.1 

In  view  of  these  possibilities  it  would  appear  that  the 
so-called  ‘  inorganic  ’  may  be  potentially  alive,  with 
vital  forces  keyed  down  to  so  low  a  note  as  not  to  respond 
to  the  tests  by  which  life,  as  we  are  familiar  with  it,  is 
commonly  discerned.  It  may  very  well  be  that  what  we 
term  matter  is  really  spirit  in  suspended  animation,  and 
only  waiting  for  the  mystic  word  of  adoption  that  will 
break  the  spell  of  its  enchanted  sleep. 

The  distinctions  we  draw,  then,  between  these  realms, 
be  it  remembered,  are  purely  arbitrary,  like  our  divisions 
of  time  and  space.  We  map  out,  for  example,  what  we 
call  the  ‘  Seven  Seas/  determining  their  respective 
latitudes  and  longitudes  and  giving  them  different  names. 
/Eschylus  speaks  of  the  ‘  multitudinous  laughter  of  the 
waves/  but  how  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  must 
heave  and  hold  their  sides  with  merriment  at  our  attempts 
to  pack  their  mighty  waters  within  meridians  and  parallels, 
and  thus  seek  to  put  asunder,  if  only  by  name,  what  God 
Himself  has  joined  !  The  oceans  constitute  a  great  and 
indivisible  unity,  their  currents  freely  intermingle,  and  one 
vast  tidal  movement  sweeps  through  and  controls  them 
all.  So  that  what  is  Pacific  to-day  may  be  Atlantic  next 
week,  and  later  still,  after  mingling  with  the  Indian,  may 
be  rushing  through  the  ‘  Roaring  Forties  ’  to  wash  the 
Southern  Pole.  In  like  manner  we  cannot  split  human 
life  into  self-contained  compartments.  They  all  interlock 
and  interact,  and  thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  a  purely 
physical  happening,  in  the  way  of  a  lesion  of  the  brain, 

1  The  System  of  Animate  Nature,  vol.  i,  pp.  70-71. 


10 


PROLOGUE 


may  induce  a  condition  of  mental  disturbance,  which,  as 
often  as  not,  emerges  and  finds  expression  in  a  serious 
moral  lapse.  Or,  as  sometimes  happens,  the  order  is 
reversed,  moral  deterioration  so  reacts  on  mental  states 
as  to  set  up  degeneration  of  brain  tissue.  But  as  to 
where  one  stage  ends  and  the  other  begins,  or  by  what 
subtle  process  of  interchange  they  unload  their  freight  on 
to  one  another,  is  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge  beyond 
our  ken. 

The  results  of  research  and  experiment  in  psychotherapy, 
conducted  in  this  field  with  proper  safeguards,  promise 
to  be  exceedingly  fruitful,  and  much  that  was  hidden  is 
being  revealed.  Enough  has  already  been  discovered 
to  confirm  what  has  always  been  held  by  the  higher 
spirits  of  the  race,  that  the  real  world  is  the  thought- 
world  ;  that  to  rule  there  is  to  have  dominion,  not  only 
over  self  within,  but  to  a  large  extent  over  circumstance 
without. 

Whether,  however,  we  hold  spiritual  life  to  be  a  kind 
of  renascence  or  inner  quickening,  brought  about  by  the 
play  of  mystical  forces  which  hover  round  the  soul,  rous¬ 
ing  it  from  torpor  as  the  Spring  sun  wakes  the  sleeping 
seed,  stirring  already  existent  but  dormant  energies  into 
activity  ;  or  whether  we  regard  it  as  something  additive, 
a  quite  new  and  original  endowment  entering  into  and 
possessing  the  soul  as  its  rightful  Master  and  Lord  ; 
whether  it  wells  up  from  within  like  a  released  spring 
whose  frozen  fountains  have  been  set  free  and  flowing 
under  the  warm  beams  of  the  Infinite  Love,  or  whether  it 
rushes  down  from  above,  a  river  of  life  from  the  throne  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb,  to  flood  and  fertilize  the  soul — does 


PROLOGUE 


ii 


not  lie  within  the  scope  of  our  study.  This  much,  how¬ 
ever,  may  be  said,  wherever  and  whenever  it  takes  place 
it  results  from  and  is  graduated  to  human  response.  It 
is  on  the  interplay  between  the  divine  will  and  the  human 
will  that  the  experience  turns.  Action  and  reaction 
between  organism  and  environment,  constitutes,  according 
to  Thomson,  the  condition  of  living.  These  are  his  words  : 
‘  Living  is  a  twofold  relation  between  organisms  and 
their  environment ;  at  one  time  the  organism  is  relati  vely 
the  more  active,  at  another  the  environment.  Living  is 
a  continual  adjustment  between  these  two  relations.' 
How  this  new  and  wonderful  force  is  generated  in  human 
lives  is,  in  this  context,  of  quite  secondary  importance. 
The  method  may  remain  a  mystery,  but  the  fact  is  un¬ 
deniable.  It  is  a  perpetually  recurring  fact  in  human 
history,  attested  by  a  great  and  growing  cloud  of  witnesses, 
and  it  is  with  this  fact  that  we  are  concerned.  Dispute 
as  we  may  as  to  the  roots,  we  cannot  deny  the  fruits. 
There  have  always  been  those  who,  with  absolute  finality 
of  assurance,  could  say  ‘  We  know  that  we  have  passed 
from  death  to  life,'  and  have  vindicated  their  claim  by 
their  works.  These  are  among  what  William  James 
calls  ‘  The  twice-born/  and  their  knowledge  of  the  fact 
is  first-hand.  It  is  the  most  tremendously  real  and 
significant  thing  in  their  experience.  For  them  to 
question  it  would  be  to  doubt  the  validity  of  their  own 
senses,  to  distrust  the  most  fully  accredited  experience  in 
their  history,  and  to  despair  of  any  such  thing  as  certitude 
in  the  deepest  things  of  life.  The  fact  is  they  have  seen 
and  recognized  Christ.  He  has  become  as  real  to  them 
as  they  are  to  themselves.  The  evidence  of  this  reality  is 


12 


PROLOGUE 


direct,  personal,  specific.  It  is  a  conviction  which  Christ 
Himself,  by  the  power  of  His  Spirit,  has  wrought.  They 
know  Him  and  the  dynamic  of  His  resurrection,  and  that 
knowledge  has  changed  for  them  their  whole  conception 
both  as  to  the  content  and  context  of  life.  It  is  because 
this  experience  is  continuous  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
that  she  is  qualified  to  bear  perpetual  witness  to  the 
Resurrection  of  her  Lord.  This  experience  is  an  infinitely 
greater  and  grander  thing  than  to  have  seen  and  handled 
Christ  after  the  flesh.  The  Church  witnesses  to  a  living 
experience  here  and  now  of  her  living  Lord.  He  has 
become  alive  for  evermore  in  her  consciousness.  Even  in 
her  darkest  days  she  has  been  able  to  show  the  miracle 
of  pure  and  saintly  souls,  who,  amid  all  the  corruptions  of 
a  society,  debased  in  thought  and  diseased  in  heart,  were 
able  to  walk  in  stainless  robes,  with  the  flame  of  a  great 
love  burning  in  their  hearts  and  the  light  of  a  great 
purpose  shining  in  their  eyes.  This  unbroken  chain  of 
witness  to  first-hand  experience,  by  both  words  and  works, 
is  not  only  the  most  outstanding  fact  in  human  history, 
but  its  most  creative  factor,  because  it  is  really  the 
Incarnation  extended  and  augmented. 

It  is  the  *  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  * 
working  itself  out  on  the  stage  of  time,  and  thus  fulfilling 
the  Saviour’s  promise,  ‘  Lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the  days, 
even  to  the  end  of  the  age.’  ‘  Because  I  live  ye  shall 
live  also  ’  is  Christ’s  word  to  His  Church,  and  fife  is  its 
own  all-sufficient  credential,  or  nothing  can  accredit  it. 
A  living  Church  has  no  more  need  to  put  in  affidavits  as 
to  her  vital  and  vitalizing  power,  than  has  a  living  man 
to  produce  a  birth  certificate  to  prove  himself  in  being. 


PROLOGUE 


13 


The  Church’s  best  defence  lies  in  attack.  If  through  all 
her  ranks  she  will  but  drop  argument  and  gird  up  her 
loins  for  service,  she  will  achieve  by  the  logic  of  life  and 
work  what  she  can  never  accomplish  by  tAe  logic  of  words. 
For  her,  as  for  every  living  organism,  the  way  of  work 
is  the  way  of  continued  life  and  the  solvent  of  doubt. 
The  living  Christ  wears  upon  His  girdle  the  keys  to  all 
mysteries,  whether  of  life  or  death,  or  of  the  underworld  : 

I  say,  the  acknowledgement  of  God  in  Christ 
Accepted  by  thy  reason,  solves  for  thee 
All  questions  in  the  earth  and  out  of  it, 

And  has  so  far  advanced  thee  to  be  wise. 

Wouldst  thou  unprove  this  to  reprove  the  proved  ? 

In  life’s  mere  minute,  and  with  power  to  use  that  proof, 
Leave  knowledge  and  revert  to  how  it  sprung  ? 

Thou  hast  it ;  use  it  and  forthwith,  or  die  ! 


INTRODUCTORY 


If  the  mere  layman  as  to  science,  who  has  to  take  all 
his  facts  at  second-hand,  finds  biology  so  fascinating  a 
study,  then  what  strange  spell  must  it  work  about  the 
initiated,  who  are  privileged  to  pass  within  the  veil  and 
freely  move  among  its  holy  mysteries  !  We  dwellers 
in  the  outer  court  await  with  wistful  longing  every 
syllable  that  is  spelt  out  concerning  the  wondrous  potency 
that  dwells  behind  appearances,  the  mystic  force  that 
throws  the  shuttles  and  weaves  the  flowing,  ever-changing 
robe  in  which  life’s  ceaseless  pageant  is  displayed.  In 
a  recent  lecture  before  the  British  Medical  Association 
on  ‘  The  Fundamental  Conceptions  of  Biology,’  Professor 
Haldane  claims  for  biology,  that  it  is  an  ‘  independent 
science,’  by  which,  as  he  explains,  is  meant  ‘  not  that 
the  physical  sciences  and  biology  are  distinct  from  one 
another  because  they  deal  with  spatially  distinct  parts 
of  the  world,  but  because  they  employ  different  working 
conceptions  or  axioms  in  interpreting  their  data.’  In 
Professor  Haldane’s  judgement  the  mechanistic  theory 
of  life  is  wholly  discredited.  The  mathematical  and 
physical  terms  into  which  it  has  been  sought  to  resolve 
life  have  proved  inadequate.  They  will  not  go  into  life 
without  leaving  a  remainder.  In  any  case,  the 
mechanistic  theory  is  merely  modal  and  not  causal. 
According  to  Professor  Haldane,  ‘  the  time  has  arrived 


14 


INTRODUCTORY 


15 


for  examination  of  our  axioms,  and  a  strict  inquiry  as 
to  how  far  they  are  valid  and  consistent  with  experience. 
We  should  begin  to  realize  more  clearly  that  what  we 
perceive  is  a  working  hypothesis  which  we  adopt  as 
consistent  with  our  observations.’  He  concludes  his 
lecture  by  saying,  ‘  In  the  course  of  this  examination  the 
spiritual  interpretation,  as  the  supreme  interpretation 
of  the  universe,  is  coming  again  to  its  own,  and  a  funda¬ 
mental  step  seems  to  me  to  be  an  inquiry  into  the  differ¬ 
ence  between  the  axioms  of  biology  and  those  of  the 
physical  sciences.’ 

Even  Roux,  whose  philosophy  has  been  mechanistic 
throughout,  nevertheless  is  forced  to  the  following 
confession :  '  The  too  simple  mechanistic  conception  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  metaphysical  conception  on  the 
other,  represent  the  Scylla  and  Charybdis  between  which 
to  sail  is  difficult,  and  so  far  by  few  satisfactorily  accom¬ 
plished  ;  it  cannot  be  denied  that  with  the  increase  of 
knowledge  the  seduction  of  the  second  has  lately  notably 
increased.’1 

Sir  Charles  Sherrington,  President  of  the  Royal  Society 
and  of  the  British  Association,  in  his  presidential  address 
before  the  latter  body  in  September  of  last  year,  chose 
for  his  subject  '  Some  Aspects  of  Animal  Mechanism.' 
Sir  Charles  explained  that  his  theme  was  chosen  partly 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  late  William  Rivers,  the  eminent 
neurologist,  and  a  member  of  the  psychological  section 
of  the  Association.  Now  the  suggestion,  coming  from 
such  a  quarter,  while  of  course  leaving  the  President 
perfectly  free  to  treat  his  subject  in  his  own  way,  yet 

1  Form  and  Function,  p.  318  (Russell). 


i6 


INTRODUCTORY 


affords  a  strong  presumption  that  in  the  mind  of  Dr. 
Rivers  there  was  no  doubt  as  to  Sherrington’s  attitude 
toward  the  mechanistic  theory  in  general,  or  that  in  his 
hands  the  psychological  side  of  things  would  have  fair 
play.  As  a  matter  of  fact  nothing  could  be  finer  than 
the  President’s  carefully  reasoned  discrimination  between 
what  he  calls  the  ‘  why  ’  of  the  living  organism  and  the 
1  how  ’  of  its  working.  The  ‘  how  ’  is  the  problem  of  the 
physiologist,  but  the  ‘  why  ’  belongs  to  the  psychologist, 
and  it  is  in  the  synthesis  of  these  two,  with  all  they 
connote,  that  life  must  be  studied  if  it  is  to  be  seen  as  a 
whole.  ‘  If,’  says  he,  ‘  we  knew  the  whole  “  how  ”  of 
the  production  of  the  body  from  egg  to  adult,  and  if  we 
admit  that  every  item  of  its  organic  machinery  runs  on 
physical  and  chemical  rules  as  completely  as  do  inorganic 
systems,  will  the  living  animal  present  no  other 
problematical  aspect  ?  The  dog,  our  household  friend, 
do  we  exhaust  its  aspects  if  in  assessing  its  sum  total  we 
omit  its  mind  ?  A  merely  reflex  pet  would  give  little 
pleasure  even  to  the  fondest  of  us.  To  pass  from  a  nerve 
impulse  to  a  psychical  event,  a  sense  impression,  percept, 
or  emotion  is,  as  it  were,  to  step  from  one  woild  to  another 
and  incommensurable  one.  It  is  to  the  psychologist 
that  we  must  turn  to  learn  in  full  the  contribution  made 
to  the  integration  of  the  animal  individual  by  mind/ 
Again,  speaking  of  the  further  integration  of  the  social 
organism  he  says  :  ‘  The  biological  study  of  it  is  essentially 
psychological ;  it  is  the  scope  and  ambit  of  social 
psychology.’1  Put  alongside  ot  this  Haldane’s  assurance 
that  ‘  Biological  interpretation  provides  us  with  a  bridge 


1  ‘  British  Association  Presidential  Address,'  1922. 


INTRODUCTORY 


17 


towards  psychological  or  spiritual  interpretation/  and 
verily  here  we  have  the  ground  of  a  sure  and  certain  hope 
that  all  the  physical  sciences  will  yet  find  their  synthesis 
in  biology,  and  that  while  she  may  not  be  possible  of 
interpretation  in  terms  of  them,  they  may,  and  must  to 
be  fully  understood,  be  construed  through  her.  The 
very  distinction  between  her  and  them  thus  constitutes 
her  the  new  and  living  way  along  which  their  relativity 
can  alone  be  successfully  sought. 

Even  that  apparently  hard  and  fast  science  of 
Economics,  with  its  rigid  adjustments  of  supply  and 
demand,  is  shown  by  Professor  Marshall  to  be  capable 
of  coming  to  sweetness  and  light  under  the  vivifying 
breath  of  biological  science.  Speaking  of  what  he  calls 
'  the  mathematico-physical  group  of  sciences/  he  points 
out  that  while  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
they  were  in  the  ascendant,  yet  as  the  century  wore  on 
the  biological  group  were  making  their  influence  felt, 
till  ‘  At  last  the  speculations  of  biology  made  a  great 
stride  forward  ;  its  discoveries  fascinated  the  world  as 
those  of  physics  had  done  in  earlier  years.  And  there 
was  a  marked  change  in  the  tone  of  the  moral  and 
historical  sciences.  Economics  has  shared  in  the  general 
movement,  and  is  getting  to  pay  every  year  a  greater 
attention  to  the  pliability  of  human  nature  and  the  way 
in  which  the  character  of  man  affects,  and  is  affected  by, 
the  prevalent  methods  of  production,  distribution,  and 
consumption  of  wealth/1  ‘  The  autonomy  of  biology/ 
says  Thomson,  ‘  is  not  inconsistent  with  its  correlation 
imperium  in  imperio — with  chemical  and  physical  science/ 

1  Principles  of  Economics,  Appendix  B,  p.  764  (Marshall). 


2 


i8 


INTRODUCTORY 


Because,  then,  life  is  the  liege  lord  of  all  natural  forces, 
biology  must  be  the  queen  of  all  natural  sciences  ;  dis¬ 
cerning  them  all  although  herself  discerned  of  none.  True 
we  see  not  yet  all  things  put  under  her,  but  she  bides  her 
time.  She  can  well  afford  to  wait,  for  the  eternities  are 
on  her  side.  The  time- process  must  needs  work  itself 
out : 


With  thousand  shocks  that  come  and  go. 

With  agonies,  with  energies, 

With  overthrowings,  and  with  cries, 

And  undulations  to  and  fro. 

But  life  initiated  the  process,  life  conducts  it,  and  life 
will  crown  it.  This  is  why  life  alone  can  construe  it.  A 
true  science  of  life,  paying  due  regard  to  all  the  facts  from 
every  field,  will  be  seen  to  carry  the  keys  to  all  the  great 
economic,  social,  industrial,  and  religious  problems  which 
are  pressing  for  solution  the  whole  world  round,  and 
challenging  the  highest  powers  of  heart  and  brain. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  in  his  Letters  to  the  Romans  and 
Galatians,  stresses  the  personal  note  in  Salvation.  He 
shows  that  it  is  a  transaction  between  the  individual  soul 
and  its  redeeming  Lord,  and  as  though  nought  else  existed 
but  itself  and  God.  In  Romans  he  works  through  the 
individual  to  the  corporate  idea  which  finds  expression  in 
chapters  xii -xiv.,  but  the  corporate  note  is  made  second¬ 
ary  and  subordinate  to  the  personal.  In  his  letters  to  the 
Ephesians  and  Colossians,  however,  this  order  is  inverted, 
for  in  both  of  these  he  is  dominated  by  the  corporate  ideal. 
It  is  this  corporate  conception,  struggling  for  realization, 
and  with  more  or  less  success  at  different  periods  of  its 


INTRODUCTORY 


19 


history,  that  we  are  confronted  in  the  Christian  Church. 
According  to  Paul’s  view  the  Church  is  a  living  organism 
with  Christ  as  its  Head.  If,  therefore,  it  is  to  follow  the 
analogy  of  life’s  processes  elsewhere,  it  may  be  expected 
to  exhibit  certain  strongly  marked  characteristics  which, 
as  we  have  said,  biological  research  has  disclosed. 
According  to  Professor  Arthur  Thomson,  ‘  the  best 
statement  of  these  characteristics  is  that  of  Roux,’  whom 
he  quotes  as  recognizing  five  elementary  functions. 

1.  Self-disassimilation. 

2.  Self-preservation,  including  assimilation,  growth, 
movement,  feeding,  &c. 

3.  Self-multi  plication. 

4.  Self-development. 

5.  Self-regulation  in  the  exercise  of  all  functions,  includ¬ 
ing  self-differentiation,  self-adjustment,  self-adaptation, 
and  in  many  organisms  distinctly  recognizable  psychical 
functions.’1  These  features  have  been  differently  stated 
by  different  workers  in  this  field  and  in  different  order. 
The  purpose  of  this  lecture  is  to  apply  these  criteria  to 
the  organized  life  of  the  Christian  Church.  Accepting 
generally  the  above  classification,  we  propose  to  deal  with 
the  question  under  the  following  heads  : 

1.  Organization. 

2.  Metabolism  (including  Anabolism  or  building  up,  and 

Katabolism  or  breaking  down). 

3.  Development. 

4.  Differentiation  of  Function. 

5.  Reproduction. 

1  The  System  of  Animate  Nature  (J.  A.  Thomson). 


I 


ORGANIZATION 

In  order  that  life  may  fulfil  its  functions,  exhibit  its 
powers,  and  pass  on  the  torch,  it  must  assume  form.  No 
man  hath  seen  life  at  any  time.  We  have  always  to  deal 
with  its  expression  through  form.  Moreover,  it  is  only 
as  it  comes  to  manifestation  in  material  structures  that 
we  can  become  aware  of  its  presence,  grow  familiar 
with  its  processes,  or  deduce  its  laws.  We  can  observe 
it  only  as  it  clothes  itself  in  visible  and  self -woven  raiment. 
As  to  what  it  is  in  itself,  in  its  naked  and  elemental 
essence,  science  can  as  yet  predicate  nothing.  It  dwells 
and  moves  and  has  its  being  for  ever  behind  the  veil. 
Whatever  may  be  true  of  Absolute  Being,  for  being  that 
is  derived,  in  order  to  maintenance  and  reproduction, 
some  form  of  incorporation  would  seem  to  be  a  necessity. 
We  cannot  picture  life  in  the  abstract  and  as  unorganized. 
If  as  Christ  declared  ‘  God  is  spirit,’  then  all  life,  whether 
embodied  in  higher  or  lower  forms,  must  be  the  self¬ 
projection  and  self -manifestation  of  that  Spirit  upon  the 
stage  of  time,  and  working  under  time  conditions.  The 
moving  and  many-coloured  pageant  of  animal  and  vege¬ 
table  life,  with  all  its  wondrous  laws,  its  marvellous 
adaptations,  its  gracious  adjustments  and  utilities,  its 
inter-relations,  and  its  inexhaustible  types  of  rich  and 
rare  design,  is  simply  the  forth-flowing  of  that  creative 
energy  which  is  forever  clothing  itself  in  new  and  wondrous 


20 


ORGANIZATION 


21 


forms.  It  is  the  invisible  and  eternal  unity  for  ever 
breaking  up  and  flowering  into  visibility  and  infinite 
variety,  which,  after  working  through  its  earthly  cycle 
of  birth,  development,  and  reproduction,  is  for  ever 
retiring  into  invisibility,  to  recover  again  its  unity  in  Him 
a  *  who  is  and  who  was  and  who  is  to  come.’  This  creative 
energy  is  everywhere  self-limited  by  the  medium  through 
which  it  elects  to  come  to  expression.  It  has  reached  its 
highest  form  in  man,  through  whose  self-consciousness 
and  free  choice  of  goodness  it  seeks  to  express  itself  in 
terms  of  moral  character,  ‘  with  power  on  his  own  act,  and 
on  the  world.’ 

Starting  as  we  do,  by  assuming  the  fact  of  spiritual  life, 
and  whether  or  not  adopting  the  view  that  it  is  a  distinct 
and  supplementary  endowment — a  veritable  gift  of  God 
bestowed  upon  the  believing  soul  that  surrenders  itself  to 
Christ — it  is  only  fair  further  to  assume  that  this  new 
life  principle  will  observe  the  selfsame  conditions  as  con¬ 
trol  life’s  movements  and  manifestations  in  other  fields. 
In  brief,  it  must  take  on  form  and  build  up  structure.  It 
may  very  well  be  that  everything  we  work  outwardly,  and 
through  the  medium  of  matter,  is  being  simultaneously 
and  reflexively  wrought  inwardly  in  terms  of  spirit,  so 
that  a  replica  is  being  retained  in  the  body-spiritual  of  all 
the  deeds  done  in  the  body-physical. 

It  would  be  a  fascinating  study  to  speculate  on  the 
body-building  power  of  this  new  life  principle  within  the 
individual,  uprearing  behind  the  veil  of  his  flesh  a  fairer 
and  more  finely  organized  structure,  ‘  for  there  is  a 
natural  body  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body.’  This 
spiritual  body,  when  the  veil  of  flesh  is  rent,  will  stand 


22 


ORGANIZATION 


revealed  in  more  or  less  completeness  and  symmetry, 
according  to  the  degree  of  loyalty  with  which  the  laws 
of  the  spiritual  community  to  which  it  belongs  have  been 
observed.  That  the  great  Apostle  regarded  this  edifica¬ 
tion  as  actually  in  progress  here  and  now,  and  as  being 
analogous  to  life's  processes  in  other  fields,  appears  again 
and  again  from  His  teaching. 

Everywhere  then,  and  always,  fife  precedes  and  pro¬ 
duces  form.  Even  among  the  ‘  spirits  of  just  men  made 
perfect '  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  distinctness  of  being 
can  be  perpetuated  without  some  embodiment,  however 
ethereal,  which  serves  as  a  boundary  fine  between  per¬ 
sonalities,  and  so  preserves  the  integrity  of  individual 
selfhood  from  becoming  blurred  out,  or  being  re-absorbed 
into  the  Universal  Principle  of  Being  out  of  which  it  has 
come. 

Dean  Inge  shows  that  Plotinus,  that  great  Neo-Platonist, 
held  strongly  to  this  view.  *  Souls  are  Logoi  of  Spirits, 
and  each  represents  a  distinct  entity  in  the  spiritual 
world.  This  distinctness  can  never  be  destroyed.  But 
the  distinctness  of  souls,  though  not  lost  is  latent  in 
the  world  of  spirits.  .  .  .  Spiritual  existence  has  an  infinite 
richness  of  content ;  the  eternal  world  is  no  undifferentiated 
jelly.  And  this  rich  fife  implies  reciprocal  action  among 
souls.  ‘  They  see  themselves  in  each  other.'  They 
have  then  characteristics  of  their  own  which  are  not 
merged  in  the  unity  of  spiritual  fife.  We  may  further 
assume  that  since  every  fife  in  this  world  represents  a 
unique  purpose  in  the  Divine  mind  and  since  all  psychic 
ends,  though  striven  for  in  time,  have  their  source  and 
consummation  in  eternity,  this,  the  inner  meaning  and 


ORGANIZATION 


23 


reality  of  each  individual  life,  remains  as  a  distinct  fact 
in  the  world  of  spirit/1 

It  is,  however,  with  the  organization  of  the  individuals 
in  whom  this  spiritual  life  has  been  begotten  into  a 
corporate  body  called  the  Church,  that  we  are  seeking  to 
deal.  Not  that  there  is  necessarily  one  set  of  laws  for  the 
individual  and  another  for  the  community,  but  that,  as 
we  shall  find,  it  is  only  through  the  community  and  the 
fulfilment  of  corporate  relations  thereto,  that  the  great 
laws  and  forces  of  the  spiritual  kingdom  can  come  to 
fullest  human  expression  and  efficiency.  Life  involves 
relations.  Isolation  spells  death.  The  relation  into 
which  the  new-born  soul  is  introduced  is  twofold — first 
to  its  risen  Lord,  as  the  Head  of  the  Body  which  is  the 
Church,  and  secondly  to  all  its  members,  consisting  of 
those  who  in  every  age  and  country  have  heard  His  voice, 
and  come  out  at  His  call.  These  are  the  true  ‘  Ecclesia/ 
whatsoever  name  they  bear,  or  whether  they  be  named 
at  all.  But  they  have  not  merely  been  *  called  out/  they 
have  been  likewise  *  called  in/  As  we  have  seen  it  is  a 
call  with  a  double  objective.  The  first  is  private,  personal, 
specific,  as  between  the  individual  soul  and  God. 
Stripping  itself  clear  of  all  relations,  entanglements,  and 
environments,  the  soul  must  come  first  of  all  in  the  naked 
essence  of  its  own  personality,  face  to  face  with  the 
Personality  Divine.  In  that  private  audience  relations 
are  set  up  that  are  primary.  Spirit  meets  with  spirit. 
The  heart  frankly  tells  its  own  story  of  moral  failure, 
defeat,  and  deficiency,  to  be  met  by  the  word  of  full 
absolution  and  moral  reinforcement.  ‘  Your  sins  which 


j 


1  The  Philosophy  of  Plotinus  (Inge),  vol.  ii.,  pp.  22-23. 


24 


ORGANIZATION 


were  many,  are  all  forgiven;  go  in  peace  and  sin  no  more/ 
From  that  interview  it  rises  a  new  creature  with  a  new 
nature,  and  committed  to  a  new  career.  But  the  second 
objective  is  relative,  and  communal,  in  which  the  soul  is 
introduced  to  a  new  social  order  which,  however,  is  as  old 
as  humanity — a  great  spiritual  fellowship  of  all  saints,  an 
organized  society  of  spiritual  entities  which  God  has  been 
instituting  and  constituting  from  the  beginning  of  days, 
informing  it  with  His  Spirit  and  conforming  it  to  His 
purpose — a  community  of  which  the  integrating  and 
structural  principle  is  love.  This  is  the  eternal  society, 
to  membership  with  which  all  sentient  being  has  been 
predestined  in  the  redeeming  will  of  God.  It  is  a  destina¬ 
tion  toward  which,  under  the  conduct  of  the  risen  Christ, 
the  whole  creation  is  moving,  and  the  consummated  glory 
of  which  will  infinitely  outweigh  all  the  agony  and 
desolation  through  which  the  suffering  ages  have  been 
called  to  pass  in  their  upward  way. 

Of  this  invisible  and  eternal  order  the  Catholic  Church 
is  the  visible  expression,  and  into  fellowship  with  it, 
through  its  unifying  Head,  every  individual  life  is  called, 
that  thereby  it  may  not  only  promote  its  own  private 
and  personal  development,  but  make  its  public  contribu¬ 
tion  to  the  corporate  efficiency  of  the  whole.  ‘  It  is  by  its 
government  that  the  Church  is  organized  for  the  perform¬ 
ance  of  its  three  cardinal  functions  :  self-manifestation, 
self-propagation,  and  self -purification.  Organization 
being  a  means  and  not  an  end,  must  be  sufficiently  elastic 
to  correspond  to  the  varying  needs  of  different  ages.  It 
must  embrace  the  ideal  side,  viz.,  that  of  Christian  con¬ 
sciousness  or  doctrine ,  and  the  actual  sides,  viz.,  that  of 


ORGANIZATION 


25 


practice  in  its  self-manifesting,  its  self-propagating  and 
its  self-purifying  action.  The  functions  of  teaching, 
governing,  and  ministering  are  of  divine  institution  ;  not 
so  the  form  of  their  administration,  and  still  less  the 
individuals  who  perform  them.  The  Church,  with  its 
organized  offices,  must  also  leave  room  for  voluntary 
exertions  and  Christian  associations  in  many  varying 
forms.’1  Souls  are  saved  to  serve,  so  that  forgetful  of 
self  they  may  function  their  powers  on  behalf  of  others. 
Function,  however,  works  through  form.  But  form, 
according  to  Russell,  ‘  is  not  something  fixed  and  con¬ 
gealed,  it  is  the  ever-changing  manifestation  of  functional 
activity.’  We  shall  have  occasion  to  deal  with  this 
question  later  and  under  another  head,  but  let  it  be  noted 
here  that  form,  while  secondary  to  function,  is  quite 
necessary  to  it,  and  life  that  is  not  permitted  to  express 
itself  through  form  simply  declines  to  carry  on. 

The  Church  in  its  manifold  forms  and  functions  is 
the  organized  body  which  spiritual  fife  has  built  up  for 
itself,  and  by  means  of  which  it  seeks  so  to  react  upon 
the  world  of  living  men  as  to  bring  them  into  the  know¬ 
ledge  and  love  of  God. 

Professor  Royce  complains  that  ‘  the  ways  that  are 
just  now  in  favour  in  the  philosophy  of  religion  seem  to 
end  in  leaving  the  individual  equally  alone  with  his 
intuitions,  his  lurid  experiences  of  sudden  conversion,  or 
his  ineffable  mysteries  of  saintly  peace.’  Now,  whether 
this  interpretation  does  full  justice  to  the  present-day 
philosophical  attitude  in  regard  to  religion  may  be  fairly 
questioned,  but  in  as  far  as  there  is  any  justification  for 

1  Dorner,  System  of  Christian  Ethics,  p.  604. 


26 


ORGANIZATION 


the  criticism,  the  attitude  is  one  which  requires  correction. 

Of  course  the  insistence  that  religion  is  nothing  if 
not  personal,  and  that  the  first  grand  necessity  to  inherit 
eternal  life  is  a  clear-cut  consciousness  of  one’s  own 
individual  selfhood,  is  of  supreme  importance.  But 
while  this  is  the  first  step  it  is  not  the  last.  There  are 
vast  social  implications  in  religion,  and  the  man  who 
fails  to  appreciate  and  render  them  explicit,  the  man 
who  bends  his  thought  inward  upon  the  salvation  of  his 
own  soul,  and  never  thinks  about  the  souls  of  others,  will, 
by  his  very  self-centredness,  lose  the  life  he  seeks  to  save. 
If  over-organization  be  the  peril  of  the  social  order,  over¬ 
individualism  is  the  peril  in  religion.  In  all  our  great 
centres  of  population  the  tendency  is  more  and  more  for 
each  to  pursue  a  lonely  and  independent  career.  We 
have  large  congregations  that  have  come  into  no  sort  of 
working  combination — groups  of  professedly  Christian 
people  who  never  join  for  the  purpose  of  lifting  their  own 
personal  life  to  a  higher  power,  in  order  that  through 
association  they  may  more  efficiently  serve  a  common 
cause.  In  many  of  our  Churches  we  have  nuclei  of 
organized  life,  but  they  are  bounded  off  from  one  another, 
so  that  instead  of  presenting  the  appearance  of  a 
federated  commonwealth  of  mutual  interests,  and  com¬ 
bining  for  mutual  service,  they  resemble  rather  a  sort 
of  spiritual  archipelago,  with  each  little  island  in  the 
group  jealously  cherishing  its  own  isolation,  instead  of 
reaching  out  friendly  hands  to  its  fellows,  and  through 
sharing  in  a  common  life,  co-ordinating  for  common  work. 

The  false  and  selfish  communism  that  is  sought  to  be 
set  up  in  the  State  can  only  be  corrected  by  the  true  and 


ORGANIZATION 


27 


unselfish  communism  which  springs  out  of  a  common  life 
derived  from  Him  *  who  pleased  not  Himself.’  The  first 
disciples  were  bound  together  by  many  ties,  a  common 
faith,  a  common  hope,  a  common  love,  but  the  greatest 
of  these  was  love.  Indeed,  the  very  word  ‘  body  ’  in 
its  etymological  signification  stands  for  a  community. 
It  has  its  root  in  a  Sanscrit  word,  ‘  bandha,’  from  the 
root  ‘  bhadh,’  to  bind.  It  is  literally  a  banding  or  binding 
together  of  mutually  related  parts,  each  of  which  can 
retain  its  own  individuality  or  specialization  only  as 
association  with  its  fellows  is  sustained.  It  can  neither 
become  nor  achieve  its  best  excepting  in  relation.  Every 
organ,  and  every  cell  of  every  organ,  was  made  for  fellow¬ 
ship,  which  it  feels  after  that  it  may  find.  In  the  New 
Testament  expression  *  the  bond  of  love,’  the  word 
*  bond  ’  is  the  translation  of  a  Greek  word  *  sundesmos/ 
which  stands  for  the  ligamentary  tissue  which  binds  the 
various  parts  of  the  body  into  a  unity.  Indeed  the  very 
word  comes  into  the  science  of  human  anatomy,  and  the 
term  ‘  Syndesmology  ’  is  employed  to  describe  the 
articulation  formed  by  the  bodily  ligaments  in  the  human 
frame.  But  ligament  ary  tissue  is  vital.  It  is  a  bond 
which  life  itself  creates  and  sustains.  It  is  not  something 
super-imposed  upon  the  living  body  from  outside,  and 
detachable  from  it  without  damage  to  its  parts.  It  is 
life’s  own  product  and  provision,  woven  from  within  for 
the  very  purpose  of  safeguarding  its  functions  and 
securing  the  effective  working  of  all  its  parts  towards  the 
ends  for  which  the  organism  exists.  Any  rupture  or 
strain  of  a  ligament,  unless  repaired  or  relieved,  will  induce 
a  permanent  weakness  of  the  parts  involved,  and  thus 


28 


ORGANIZATION 


reduce  the  efficiency  of  the  whole.  So  with  the  ties  that 
bind  into  a  corporate  body  the  members  of  the  Christian 
Church.  They  are  neither  outward  nor  artificial,  but 
inward  and  vital ;  so  much  so,  that  either  to  rupture  them 
by  violence  or  to  weaken  them  by  failing  to  function 
them  is  to  imperil  the  organism  which  they  assist  to 
unify  and  to  threaten  its  life.  We  are  sharers  in  a  common 
fife  which  holds  us  all  in  its  vital  grasp,  and  is  ever 
seeking  by  baptizing  us  into  a  common  love  to  beget  in 
us  a  common  mind. 

In  his  ‘  Lowell  Lectures  ’  Royce  points  out  that  ‘  When 
love  of  the  community,  nourished  by  common  memories 
and  common  hope,  both  exists  and  expresses  itself  in 
devoted  individual  lives,  it  can  constantly  tend,  despite 
the  complexity  of  the  present  social  order,  to  keep  the 
consciousness  of  the  community  alive.’1  ‘We  are  one 
because  of  our  common  past  and  future,  because  of  the 
national  heroes  and  victories  and  hopes,  and  because  we 
love  all  these  common  memories  and  hopes  ;  so  it  is  that 
in  the  ideal  Church,  each  member  not  only  looks  back¬ 
wards  to  the  same  history  of  salvation  as  does  his  fellow, 
but  is  even  thereby  led  to  an  ideal  identification  of  his 
present  self  with  that  of  his  fellow  member  that  would 
not  otherwise  be  possible.’2 

The  ideal  Church  presents  the  very  highest  form  of 
communal  fife.  It  knows  no  distinctions  of  rank  or  race 
or  colour,  they  are  all  submerged  in  the  deep  full  tide  of 
a  love  which  is  the  very  fife  of  God,  and  of  a  fife  which  is 
His  love. 

The  fundamental  thought,  then,  underlying  the  New 

1  The  Problem  of  Christianity,  vol.  xi.  p.  92.  *  Ibid.,  p.  94. 


ORGANIZATION 


29 


Testament  idea  of  the  Church,  is  that  the  Christian  life 
is  a  related  life.  Paul's  analogy  drawn  from  the  body 
and  its  members  is  profoundly  scientific.  In  a  normal 
human  body  all  the  limbs  and  organs  are  members  one 
of  another.  The  association  is  so  close  and  vital  that 
they  all  play  into  one  another's  hands  like  a  well-trained 
team.  They  are  unified  and  controlled  by  the  brain, 
to  which  organ  they  have  delegated  the  power  of  com¬ 
mand.  The  theory  which  at  present  holds  the  field 
is  that  the  human  body  represents  a  real  democracy, 
inasmuch  as  the  brain  has  come  to  be  elected  as  the 
governing  centre  by  the  consent,  gradually  handed  in, 
of  the  various  powers.  According  to  this  theory  the 
local  control  in  the  course  of  evolution  has  in  some  direc¬ 
tions  tended  to  grow  less  and  less,  and  the  central  control 
more  and  more.  There  are  still  certain  functions  which 
communicate  with  one  another  directly  and  without 
engaging  the  brain,  just  as  in  a  telephone  system  one 
may  be  able,  without  troubling  Exchange,  to  get  into 
touch  with  certain  departments  of  his  business  ;  but  for 
the  most  part  the  various  members  of  the  body  have  to 
ring  up  *  central '  in  order  to  be  put  in  touch  with  one 
another  and  to  act  in  concert.  It  is  significant  to 
remember  that  this  rule  from  above  is  by  consent  of  the 
members  below.  At  first  sight,  and  to  the  uninstructed, 
it  looks  as  if  the  government  of  the  body  were  a  despotism, 
in  which  the  brain  simply  lorded  it  over  the  members 
and  brought  them  into  subjection.  But  according  to 
those  who  have  studied  this  question  most  deeply  the 
autocratic  interpretation  of  the  situation  is  not  tenable. 
It  has  to  give  way  in  favour  of  the  democratic  idea,  which 


3<> 


ORGANIZATION 


regards  the  brain  as  the  constitutionally  appointed 
executive  of  the  body,  and  as  legislating  by  its  full  and 
free  consent. 

This  democratic  idea  finely  sustains  the  analogy  which 
the  Apostle  sets  up  between  the  relation  of  Christ  to  His 
Church,  and  that  of  the  head  to  the  body.  Under  the 
despotic  idea  it  would  have  to  break  down,  because  the 
only  sovereignty  which  Christ  can  undertake  to  exert  in 
the  exercise  of  His  moral  government  is  that  which  is 
conceded  to  Him  by  the  voluntary  surrender  of  man's 
will. 

In  the  establishment  of  His  Church,  Christ  has  sought 
to  create  an  organism  which  will  express  universally 
what  His  earthly  body  expressed  locally,  of  the  mind 
and  heart  of  God.  That  earthly  body  must  have 
come  to  full  efficiency  of  co-ordination  in  quite  normal 
ways,  and  by  a  gradual  process  in  which  time  was 
a  requisite  and  ruling  factor.  Supposing  Him,  accord¬ 
ing  to  tradition,  to  have  worked  at  the  carpenter’s  bench, 
we  must  assume  that  He  came  to  proficiency  and  skill 
in  the  use  of  His  tools  by  practice,  and  through  many  a 
failure  and  mistake.  In  any  case,  whether  He  laboured 
in  this  way  or  not,  the  harmonious  working  of  His  bodily 
powers  must  have  come  about,  in  His  case  as  in  ours,  as 
the  result  of  bringing  them  into  mutual  play ;  all  of  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  must  have  involved  a  time-process. 
But  if  the  single  body  through  which  His  will  flowed 
freely  and  unchallenged  thus  took  time  to  come  to 
perfection  of  organized  efficiency,  what  wonder  that  the 
complex  corporate  body  which  is  His  Church,  embracing 
so  many  minds  and  wills,  should  take  time  to  come  into 


ORGANIZATION 


3i 


full  working  order  so  as  adequately  to  articulate  the 
purpose  oi  His  mind  and  the  love  of  His  heart !  Just  as 
the  various  functions  of  the  human  body  presuppose 
each  other  and  were  made  to  act  in  concert,  so  with  the 
members  of  Christ’s  Church.  They  are  not  merely 
related  to  Him,  but  to  one  another  through  Him  as  their 
Head.  The  over-individualism  of  which  we  are  in  peril 
is  the  price  we  have  to  pay  for  our  Protestantism.  With 
a  great  sum  obtained  we  this  freedom,  and  at  every  cost 
it  must  be  maintained.  At  the  same  time,  how¬ 
ever,  the  right  of  private  judgement  must  be  so 
construed  and  exercised  as  to  subserve  the  corporate 
good.  With  the  obligations,  private  and  personal, 
which  the  individual  owes  to  himself  as  a  member 
of  the  spiritual  community  we  must  deal  later,  but 
the  fact  that  the  Christian  life  is  a  richly-related  life 
must  be  firmly  held,  and  its  requirements  frankly  faced, 
or  the  personal  life  will  be  by  so  much  impoverished. 
It  is  true  that  we  have  to  be  recovered  as  individuals  from 
the  mass,  but  only  that  in  turn,  as  we  have  seen,  we  may 
be  organized  into  a  corporate  fellowship  which,  while  it 
carries  corporate  privileges,  makes  them  all  turn  on 
loyalty  to  corporate  duties,  and  the  contribution  of 
mutual  effort  for  the  good  of  all. 

The  Christ-controlled  man  very  soon  discovers,  under 
the  culture  of  the  Spirit,  that  God  has  a  will  for  him  which 
outruns  the  limits  of  his  own  personality,  and  is  infinitely 
broader  than  his  own  individual  life.  It  is  a  will  that 
takes  him  up  and  treats  him  not  merely  as  an  end,  but 
as  a  means  to  large,  divine,  immeasurable  ends,  graduat¬ 
ing  him  as  an  initiate  into  a  universal  society,  which. 


32 


ORGANIZATION 


when  complete,  will  articulate  the  perfect  will  of 
God. 

No  single  life,  however  rich  and  many-sided,  could 
provide  an  adequate  field  for  the  manifestation  of  the 
divine  purpose  in  humanity.  That  purpose  requires 
myriads  of  personalities,  with  diverse  qualities  and 
innumerable  occupations,  in  order  that  the  length  and 
breadth  of  its  infinite  scope  may  come  to  expression. 
This  is  the  eternal  purpose  toward  which  God  has  been 
working  from  the  beginning.  It  is  the 

One  far-off  divine  event 

To  which  the  whole  creation  moves. 

It  is  this  for  which  Paul  beseeches  in  his  sublime 
intercession  : 

For  this  cause  I  bow  my  knees  unto  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  Of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth  is 
named,  That  He  would  grant  you,  according  to  the  riches  of 
His  glory,  to  be  strengthened  with  might  by  His  Spirit  in  the 
inner  man  ;  That  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith  ; 
that  ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  love.  May  be  able  to 
comprehend  with  all  saints  what  is  the  breadth,  and  length, 
and  depth,  and  height ;  And  to  know  the  love  of  Christ,  which 
passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all  the  fullness 
of  God. 

Now  the  preposition  '  with  *  in  this  passage  is  all- 
important.  It  is  only  ‘  with  all  saints  ’ — only  in  con¬ 
junction  with  all  who  in  every  age  have  been  obedient 
to  the  heavenly  vision,  and  responded  to  the  upward 
call,  that  we  shall  be  able  to  comprehend  the  vast 
dimensions  of  Redeeming  Love.  Not  in  isolation,  but 


ORGANIZATION 


33 


only  in  association,  can  its  all-embracing  purpose  be 
either  realized  or  expressed. 

Our  danger,  as  we  have  said,  is  that  of  over-developing 
the  individual  at  the  expense  of  the  corporate  idea,  and 
in  a  Church  that  succumbs  to  this  peril  there  can  be  no 
such  thing  as  esprit  de  corps.  Only  through  self-subor- 
indation  can  we  reach  the  highest  co-ordination  and 
make  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth  what  he  intended  it 
to  be — the  instrument  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  for  redeem¬ 
ing  the  Kingdom  of  man.  For  this  the  Spirit  of  unity 
is  for  ever  working  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  Church, 
making  for  the  healing  of  division  and  the  fulfilment  of 
the  Saviour’s  prayer  :  ‘  That  they  all  may  be  one,  as 
Thou  Father  art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  may  be 
one  in  Us,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent 
Me/ 

The  supreme  and  unanswerable  apologetic  for  the 
Christian  Faith  is  a  united  Christendom,  an  undivided 
Church,  ‘  one  body,  one  Spirit,  one  Lord,  one  Faith,  one 
baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  over  all  and 
through  all  and  in  you  all/ 

Clearly,  then,  until  the  Christian  Church  consents  to 
submerge  the  accidentals  which  divide  her  in  the  deep 
full  tide  of  the  essentials  that  make  her  one,  she  is  with¬ 
holding  from  the  world  the  most  convincing  demonstra¬ 
tion  that  Christ  was  the  sent  of  God. 

The  ‘  Bond  ’  that  binds  together  the  Church  of  God 
may  thus  be  very  rightly  designated  the  ‘  Bond  of  peace/ 
But  just  as  in  the  physical  body,  dislocation  does  take 
place,  to  the  straining  and  damage  of  the  parts,  involving 
the  whole  system  in  distress,  so  in  the  body  ecclesiastic 
3 


34 


ORGANIZATION 


there  have  been  dislocations  and  ruptures,  which  have 
plunged  the  Church  into  misery,  and  sadly  reduced  her 
efficiency  as  a  working  force.  You  cannot  have  disloca¬ 
tion  without  discomfort,  and  you  cannot  have  discomfort 
without  diminished  utility.  We  are  not  arguing  for 
uniformity.  In  the  human  body,  which  serves  Paul  for 
an  illustration  of  the  Church,  there  is  endless  diversity  of 
form  and  function,  but  all  unified  and  controlled  through 
the  co-ordinating  brain. 

The  science  of  embryology  reveals  that  this  partition 
of  the  body  into  its  different  organs  and  functions  begins 
at  a  very  early  stage  in  its  life  history.  In  the  process 
of  development  one  part  of  the  embryo  evolves  into  an 
eye,  another  into  an  ear,  and  another  into  a  hand  ;  and 
nothing  could  be  more  diverse  in  structure  and  function 
than  these  different  powers,  just  as  nothing  could  be 
more  beautiful  than  their  perfect  correlation.  They  work 
together  with  such  delightful  reciprocity,  with  such 
mutual  sympathy  and  understanding,  as  to  present  the 
very  highest  expression  of  corporate  unity.  And  not 
only  do  eye,  and  ear,  and  hand  differ  from  one  another, 
but  eye  differs  from  eye,  ear  from  ear,  and  hand  from 
hand,  in  the  same  body.  So  that  absolutely  there  are 
no  duplicates.  There  are  no  two  eyes  in  any  one  head 
that  see  exactly  alike.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  this  diversity, 
where  will  you  find  such  unity,  such  perfectly  adjusted  and 
sympathetic  relation  ?  From  all  of  which  I  desire  to 
show  that  there  is  no  need  in  the  Church  for  uniformity 
in  order  to  unity.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  not  only 
plenty  of  room,  but  absolute  need,  for  variation  in  form, 
structure,  and  function  in  the  Church,  which  is  the 


ORGANIZATION 


35 


Body  of  Christ,  if  she  is  to  fulfil  her  manifold  relations 
and  stand  in  the  world  of  men  as  the  organized  will  of 
God — the  working  plant,  or,  if  you  will,  the  standing 
army,  whose  business  is  the  annexation  and  federation 
of  all  the  kingdoms  of  man  in  a  world-wide  kingdom  of 
God. 

Now,  as  we  have  said,  the  differentiation  of  function 
in  the  human  body  takes  place  very  early  in  the  history 
of  the  embryo,  and  long  before  there  can  be  any  possible 
co-ordination  of  the  powers  ;  and  if  the  Church  is  to 
follow  this  analogy,  while  there  may  be  abundance  of 
hope  in  the  ecclesiastical  out-look,  there  is  a  call  to  let 
patience  have  her  perfect  work.  For  example,  in  the 
case  of  a  normal  child  of  a  few  weeks  old,  there  are  all 
the  functions  of  body  and  brain.  There  is  the  seeing  eye, 
the  hearing  ear,  the  tasting  tongue,  and  the  tiny  hands 
and  feet.  But  while  these  are  all  present,  and  in  the 
right  position,  proportion,  and  relation,  the  mutual 
relation  is  rather  latent  than  patent,  for  these  powers 
have  not  yet  ‘  found  themselves/  so  to  speak.  They 
have  not  yet  discovered  their  corporate  unity  so  as  to 
work  together  for  a  common  end.  Indeed,  to  develop 
this  fine  communion  to  its  highest  proficiency  will,  under 
the  most  favourable  conditions,  be  a  matter  of  years  of 
interaction  between  body  and  brain.  Even  then,  how¬ 
ever,  in  the  most  fully  developed  and  harmonious  natures, 
there  will  always  be  some  functions  that  remain  imper¬ 
fectly  unfolded,  while  others  never  seem  to  come  into  the 
circle  of  fellowship  at  all,  but  remain  outside,  to  become 
a  possible  point  of  inflammation  and  menace  to  the 
whole. 


36 


ORGANIZATION 


If  the  history  of  the  Body  ecclesiastic  is  to  follow  this 
order,  then  the  differentiation  of  function  which  expresses 
itself  in  the  various  branches  of  the  Christian  Church 
must  be  interpreted  as  divinely  purposed  and  planned, 
but  only,  as  in  the  case  of  the  individual  body,  that  this 
diversity  of  function  and  allocation  of  field  may  be 
succeeded  by  their  ultimate  co-ordination  in  an  organic 
and  harmonized  unity.  And,  of  course,  the  more  highly 
organized  the  spiritual  body-corporate  becomes,  the 
longer  will  the  work  of  co-ordination  be  delayed.  Now 
it  is  vain  to  profess  belief  in  the  corporate  ideal,  and  to  be 
for  ever  affirming  our  faith  in  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
without  working  towards  its  visible  realization.  How 
can  we  justify  our  attitude  of  aloofness  and  suspicion,  our 
policy  of  push  and  self-assertion,  our  wasteful  over¬ 
lapping,  with  its  expressed  or  implied  discredit  of  our 
sister  churches’  claims?  What  a  spectacle  must  Christen¬ 
dom  present  to  the  onlooker — with  its  rival  camps, 
its  clashing  interests,  its  divided  aims  !  Forgetting  the 
far-reaching  and  imperial  ends  for  which  she  has  been 
organized,  in  the  pursuit  of  narrow,  exclusive,  and 
sectarian  ends  of  her  own,  she  has  either  lost  or  never 
caught  the  vision  of  the  ideal ;  she  has  been  taking  a  part 
for  the  whole. 

Field  Marshal  Earl  Haig,  in  a  striking  address  de¬ 
livered  soon  after  the  Armistice  had  been  signed,  said : 

'  I  have  seen  in  my  own  sphere  of  activity  the  working 
of  a  General  Staff.  I  understand  how  without  interfer¬ 
ing  with  the  discretion  of  those  on  the  spot,  in  matters 
that  concern  them  and  them  only,  it  is  yet  able  to  give 
singleness  of  purpose  to  diversified  operations  in  many 


ORGANIZATION 


37 


theatres,  yet  more  particularly  how  it  is  able  to  instil  life, 
energy,  resolution,  and  drive  life  into  the  actions  of  all, 
inspiring  all  with  the  feeling  that  they  are  working  to  a 
common  end ;  that  their  efforts  are  interdependent, 
their  failure  involving  more  than  their  own  ruin,  and 
their  success  guaranteeing  the  victory  of  others. 

‘  I  want  to  see  established  a  general  staff  for  the 
Christian  Churches  of  the  Empire,  some  body  at  least 
analogous  in  the  ecclesiastical  sphere  to  the  position 
held  by  the  Imperial  General  Staff  in  the  military  or¬ 
ganization  of  the  Empire.  There  need  be  no  interference 
in  the  internal  economy  of  the  Churches,  whether  on 
their  spiritual  or  their  temporal  side.  What,  it  seems 
to  me,  is  needed  at  once,  is  a  strong  representative  body 
not  too  large  for  energetic  action,  which  can  direct  the 
general  policy  of  the  churches,  infuse  them  with  new 
energy  and  strengthen  their  resolution  in  the  great  crusade 
of  brotherhood  on  the  long  road  on  which  the  war  has 
set  our  feet.  This  central  body  must  proceed  to  the 
further  development  of  an  organization  suited  to  the  needs 
of  the  Empire.  We  are  entering,  we  hope,  upon  an  era 
of  peace  bought  by  vast  sacrifice.  The  object  of  every 
one  of  us  is  to  make  that  peace  secure  and  permanent. 
To  my  mind  the  one  means  by  which  that  era  can  be 
achieved  is  to  develop,  not  merely  in  Scotland  and 
England  but  throughout  the  whole  of  the  British  Empire 
and  the  whole  world,  the  spirit  of  brotherhood.  .  .  .  For 
that  work  we  need  the  active  help  of  a  strong,  vigorous, 
national  Church — a  Church  which  has  risen  superior  to 
the  forces  of  disruption,  and  is  in  itself  a  living  embodi¬ 
ment  of  the  principles  of  fellowship  and  unity.’ 


38 


ORGANIZATION 


Assuming  the  analogy  to  be  sound,  that  each  great 
division  of  the  Christian  Church  has  been  divinely  created 
and  ordained  to  bear  witness  to  some  particular  aspect 
of  the  Truth,  it  must  at  the  same  time  be  in  possession 
of  the  whole.  It  may  feel  itself  called  to  specialize  in 
some  particular  direction,  just  as  a  medical  man  may  be 
called  to  specialize  in  some  particular  department  of  his 
profession.  But  a  doctor  must  become  master  of  the 
human  constitution  as  a  whole  before  he  can  venture  to 
particularize.  Indeed,  any  specialist  will  tell  you  that 
his  success  in  any  specialization  has  been  determined  by 
the  breadth  and  accuracy  of  his  knowledge  of  the  human 
body  as  a  whole.  That  is  to  say,  every  specialist,  whether 
of  eye,  ear,  or  throat,  would  be  capable  of  diagnosing  and 
prescribing  for  any  of  the  countless  ailments  of  the 
human  body,  for  the  simple  reason  that  he  has  had  to 
come  up  to  his  special  forte  through  the  common  gateway 
of  general  practice.  So  with  the  different  Churches,  their 
differences  are  simply  specializations  which  have  been 
either  developed  by  thought  from  within,  or  necessitated 
by  the  exigency  of  adaptation  from  without.  Special 
circumstances  call  for  the  assertion  of  certain  teaching 
and  the  insistence  of  certain  practice,  all  of  which, 
however,  must  be  done  so  as  to  regard  the  proportion  of 
faith,  that  the  due  perspective  of  doctrine  shall  not  be 
lost.  If  we  are  to  keep  the  '  unity  of  the  Spirit/  we 
must  as  Churches  multiply  points  of  fraternal  contact. 
The  frequent  and  familiar  intercourse  of  mental  and 
moral  affinities  provides  one  of  the  best  checks  to  the 
perils  of  over-individualism.  We  are  all  in  danger  of 
lop-sidedness.  We  require  to  exchange  and  compare 


ORGANIZATION 


39 


opinions  and  experiences.  This  is  true  in  every  depart¬ 
ment  of  life.  Men  with  common  aims  find  it  necessary 
to  confer,  that  they  may  take  corporate  action  to  secure 
common  ends.  The  personal  equation  can  be  measured 
and  dealt  with  only  by  comparison,  and  fellowship  with 
kindred  souls  is  the  best  cure  for  ‘  cranks/  If  we  could 
but  revive  the  Church  idea  in  this  corporate  sense,  and 
by  the  fulfilment  of  mutual  relations  bring  about  a  more 
vigorous  constitutional  life,  many  of  our  private  and 
personal  weaknesses  would  disappear  through  our  sharing 
in  a  strength  that  can  come  to  us  only  through  association 
with  the  organized  body  of  which  we  are  the  members. 


II 


METABOLISM 

i.  Anabolism  or  Assimilation 


‘  Metabolism  has  two  great  purposes  to  fulfil.  First  :  the 
maintenance  unimpaired  of  the  substance  of  the  tissues,  and 
secondly,  the  conservation  of  bodily  energy.  The  former  consists 
in  the  replacement  of  the  waste  of  tissue  substance,  which  the 
stress  and  strain  of  vital  activity  entails.  It  is,  therefore,  essenti¬ 
ally  anabolic  in  nature.  The  conservation  of  bodily  energy  on 
the  other  hand  is  achieved  by  the  breaking  down  of  food  com¬ 
pounds,  and  the  liberation  of  their  potential  energy  in  the  form 
of  heat  and  work,  and  is,  therefore,  preponderatingly  “katabolic.”  ’ 
— Hutchison's  Applied  Physiology. 

‘  The  cells  of  the  body  lie  bathed  in  lymph,  which,  though  at 
times  tending  to  stagnate  locally,  as  in  the  muscles  during  rest, 
may  be  regarded  as  more  or  less  continually  on  the  flux,  flowing 
both  through  and  around  them.  The  lymph-flow  to  the  cells 
carries  the  oxygen,  proteins,  carbo-hydrates,  fats,  salts,  and  other 
substances  necessary  for  the  bio-chemical  changes  that  constitute 
cell-life.  The  lymph-ebb  carries  away  from  the  cells  the  waste- 
products  such  as  carbonic  acid  and  ammonia. 

‘  The  composition  of  this  “  lymph  "  is  essentially  determined 
by  the  composition  of  the  blood-plasma.  This  is  a  highly  complex 
fluid — the  most  complex  in  nature,  containing  an  endless  variety 
of  substances — food-stuffs,  oxygen,  hormones,  ferments, 
opsonins,  which  defy  the  most  careful  and  delicate  methods  of 
chemical  research ;  and  let  it  be  remembered  that  it  is  in  a  fluid 
of  this  kind,  that  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  its  career, 
every  cell  in  the  body  lies  bathed  and  is  through  it  subjected  to 
an  endless  variety  of  influences  both  good  and  bad.’ — H. 
Campbell's  Aids  to  Pathology. 

40 


METABOLISM 


4i 


*  The  part  played  by  food  among  the  higher  animals  is  indeed 
extremely  complex.  In  the  first  place  it  serves  to  repair  tissues, 
then  it  provides  the  animal  with  the  heat  necessary  to  render  it 
as  independent  as  possible  of  changes  in  external  temperature. 
Thus  it  preserves,  supports,  and  maintains  the  organism  in  which 
the  nervous  system  is  set,  and  on  which  the  nervous  elements 
have  to  live.  But  these  nervous  elements  would  have  no  reason 
for  existence  if  the  organism  did  not  pass  to  them,  and  especially 
to  the  muscles  they  control  a  certain  energy  to  expend  ;  and  it 
may  even  be  conjectured  that  there,  in  the  main,  is  the  essential 
and  ultimate  destination  of  food.’ — Creative  Evolution,  p.  127 
(Bergson). 


The  physiological  availability  of  the  foodstuffs  we 
consume  is  measured  by  their  heat-producing  and  tissue¬ 
building  value.  The  Church,  which  is  the  Body  of  Christ, 
requires  to  be  fed.  Like  the  individual  organisms  which 
go  to  make  it  up,  it  expends  energy  and  sustains  waste, 
and  occasionally  damage  in  the  functioning  of  its  powers. 
This  has  to  be  made  up,  and  it  can  be  made  up  only  by 
the  intake  of  appropriate  food.  This  foodstuff  has  to  be 
broken  down  by  vital  processes  and  sorted  out  according 
to  its  nutritive  worth.  Churches,  like  individuals,  suffer 
from  malnutrition,  though  probably  here  as  elsewhere, 
there  are  often  conditions  induced  through  the  over¬ 
feeding  and  underworking  of  the  organism. 

It  has  been  laid  down  by  ‘  Flack  and  Hill  ’  that : 
‘  In  these  days  of  adulteration  and  separation  of  natural 
foods,  it  is  quite  possible  that  errors  may  arise  in  man’s 
diet  ;  but  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  if  the  general  public 
devoted  as  much  attention  to  keeping  itself  fit  by  proper 
muscular  exercise  in  the  open  air  as  it  does  to  the  question 
of  diet,  the  latter  would  cease  to  be  of  such  importance.’ 

There  is  surely  a  hint  of  this  in  the  Saviour’s  reply  to 


42 


METABOLISM 


His  disciples  when  they  were  urging  upon  Him  the  food 
they  had  just  purchased  in  the  Samaritan  village. 
Although  wearied  by  His  journey  and  physically  indis¬ 
posed  to  conversation,  He  had  been  busy  drawing  the 
heart  of  the  woman  of  Samaria  away  from  the  failing 
waters  of  time  to  those  eternal  springs  that  upleap  to  the 
level  of  their  heavenly  source.  He  had  turned  her  thought 
from  the  visible  ceremonial  of  a  formal  and  merely  local 
system  of  worship  to  that  spiritual  and  universal  inter¬ 
course  with  the  everlasting  Father,  which  He  showed 
to  be  not  only  possible  but  necessary.  Instead,  however, 
of  being  further  exhausted  by  His  effort,  He  found 
Himself  not  only  spiritually  but  physically  reinforced. 
He  met  the  invitation  to  food  with  the  significant  reply, 
'  I  have  meat  to  eat  that  ye  know  not  of.  My  meat  is  to 
do  the  will  of  My  Father  which  is  in  heaven.’ 

Now  meat  is  the  generic  term  which  stands  for  nutri¬ 
ment.  Our  physical  life  is  sustained  by  the  appropriation 
and  assimilation  of  certain  nutrient  qualities  enfolded  in 
the  fruits  and  grains  of  the  earth.  When  these  are  fed 
to  the  life  principle  for  its  nourishment,  they  are  straight¬ 
way  seized  upon  by  the  invisible  chemists  of  the  body  and 
made  to  surrender  their  life-sustaining  qualities.  These 
inherent  qualities  represent  the  will  of  God  in  terms  of 
nutriment.  The  morning  loaf  when  thus  interpreted  is 
God’s  will  made  bread,  and  it  is  only  as  this  word  is 
made  to  render  up  the  spiritual  qualities  expressed  by 
that  will,  and  which  are  sought  to  be  mediated  through 
a  visible  and  material  substance,  that  life  can  be  sustained. 
So  that  it  is  literally  true  that  ‘  man  cannot  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 


METABOLISM 


43 


mouth  of  God.’  What  goes  into  man’s  mouth  thus 
depends  for  its  efficacy  on  what  comes  out  from 
God’s. 

The  bread  that  did  not  carry  this  spiritual  quality, 
that  was  destitute  of  the  living  will  of  God,  would  be 
powerless  to  sustain  life.  If  life  alone  can  beget  life, 
life  alone  can  sustain  it. 

What  a  word  is  to  the  thought  it  seeks  to  carry  and 
make  current,  that  bread  is  to  the  life-giving  potency  with 
which  it  is  charged.  It  enfolds  a  secret  energy.  Just  as 
the  words  we  employ  in  daily  speech  must  be  received  by 
the  hearer  into  his  mind  and  there  made  to  deliver  up 
their  contents,  before  there  can  be  any  traffic  in  ideas, 
so  bread  or  its  equivalent  has  to  be  received,  broken 
down  into  its  different  elements,  and  assimilated,  if  its 
constituent  properties  are  to  become  the  servitors  of  life. 
In  this  connexion  there  is  a  striking  passage  in  Hebrews, 
‘  The  word  spoken  to  them  did  not  profit  them,  not  being 
mixed  with  faith  in  them  that  heard  it.’  Here  there  is  a 
distinct  recognition  of  the  fact  that  there  are  important 
subjective  conditions  requiring  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  body, 
if  the  full  food-value  of  one’s  meals  is  to  be  secured.  The 
fact  is  that  our  food  consists  of  protein  in  various  com¬ 
binations.  These  combinations  have  to  be  broken  down, 
that  the  nutritive  qualities  they  hold  may  be  yielded  up. 
This  is  done  through  the  action  of  certain  secretions, 
which,  so  to  speak,  unlock  the  cupboards  and  take 
delivery  of  supplies  which  are  thus  made  available  for 
absorption  and  distribution  throughout  the  community 
by  the  blood-stream,  which  performs  the  double  function 
of  bringing  nourishment  to  each  and  every  part  of  the 


44 


METABOLISM 


body  in  appropriate  and  properly  proportioned  quantities, 
and  taking  from  it  its  waste  products  for  elimination  by 
the  various  methods  of  exit. 

The  value  of  food  is  thus  seen  to  be  determined,  not 
by  its  inherent  qualities  alone,  but  by  the  ability  of  the 
recipient  to  make  it  yield  up  those  qualities  on  demand. 
Any  deficiency  in  this  ability  results  in  non-assimilation 
and  consequent  non-nutrition,  so  that  the  richest  building 
material  may  be  taken  into  the  body  with  no  more 
advantage  to  it  than  the  contents  of  packets  that  we 
post  are  to  the  office  through  which  they  pass.  Now 
the  word  ‘  Faith  ’  in  this  connexion  may  be  interpreted 
either  as  trust  or  as  trustworthiness — either  as  confidence 
felt  by  us  in  another,  or  as  deserved  by  us  from  another. 
Indeed,  both  of  these  conceptions  of  reliance  and 
reliability  are  gathered  up  and  expressed  in  this 
single  term.  But  whichever  way  we  construe  it  in 
this  passage,  the  underlying  idea  that  is  common  to 
them  both  is  that  some  quality  of  mind  or  heart  is 
requisite  on  the  part  of  him  who  hears  the  word  of 
truth  if  he  is  to  be  enriched  mentally  or  morally  by 
him  who  speaks  it. 

This  faith  quality  stands,  then,  as  the  medium  of 
exchange  between  two  worlds.  As  truly  as  '  good  faith  ’ 
is  an  essential  element  in  the  traffic  of  the  market-place, 
so  in  any  transactions  between  the  soul  of  man  and  the 
Spirit  of  God,  faith  is  a  fundamental  requirement.  It 
is  the  determining  factor  of  value.  Upon  its  freshness  and 
vigour  will  depend  whether  the  verbal  currency  of  thought, 
in  the  shape  of  words,  can  be  cashed  at  its  face  value,  or 
must  suffer  discount.  Let  faith  become  a  withered 


METABOLISM 


45 


faculty,  then  whatever  moral  wealth  may  be  put  within 
its  reach,  will  never  be  passed  into  our  account  and 
placed  to  the  credit  of  the  soul. 

Or  keeping  strictly  to  biological  analogy,  faith,  fresh 
and  strong,  functioning  as  the  condition  of  vital  transport, 
may  be  regarded  as  standing  to  the  life  of  the  spiritual 
community  as  the  green  leaf  stands  to  the  physical  life  of 
the  world.  When  the  Psalmist  likened  the  godly  man  to 
a  tree,  whose  leaf  should  not  wither,  he  was  probably 
building  better  than  he  knew.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  in 
fixing  attention  on  the  greenness  of  the  leaf,  he  seized  on 
the  one  and  only  gateway  through  which  life  in  all  its 
myriad  forms  can  be  sustained.  One  wonders  as  to  how 
much  he  did  know  of  the  functions  fulfilled  by  the  leaf. 
Having  shown  that  the  roots  of  the  tree  are  struck  deep 
into  the  well-soaked  river-bank,  it  really  seems,  at  first 
sight,  unnecessary  to  affirm  anything  in  regard  to  the 
perennial  greenness  of  the  leaf.  That  surely  might  have 
been  taken  for  granted  under  such  favourable  conditions 
as  are  named.  Moreover,  after  stating  that  the  tree 
brings  forth  its  fruit  in  its  season,  does  it  not  seem  super¬ 
fluous  and  rather  in  the  nature  of  an  anti-climax  to  refer 
to  the  leaf  at  all  ?  So  indeed,  on  a  surface  view,  it  might 
appear,  but  aided  by  investigators  in  this  field  we  come 
to  a  better  knowledge  as  to  the  functions  fulfilled  by  the 
leaf  in  the  life-history  of  the  tree.  Biological  research 
has  revealed  that  upon  the  leaf  as  on  a  pivot  the  whole 
fortune  of  the  tree  structure  has  been  made  to  turn. 
Whether  the  Psalmist  made  this  reference  wittingly  or 
otherwise,  the  fact  remains  that  when  he  did  so  he  was 
giving  the  leaf  the  due  place,  to  which,  according  to  the 


46 


METABOLISM 


most  advanced  scientific  knowledge,  it  should  be  assigned. 
As  a  matter  of  plain  fact,  there  is  only  the  thickness  of  a 
green  leaf  between  the  whole  world  of  physical  life  and 
the  silent  realm  of  death.  This  is  not  poetry,  but  simple, 
downright  prose.  Scientific  investigation  reveals  that 
the  greenness  of  a  leaf  is  due  to  the  presence  of  what  is 
known  as  chlorophyll — a  substance  that  appears  to  be 
the  product  of  a  union  between  sunlight  and  the  proto¬ 
plasmic  fluid  which  the  leaf  contains.  Under  the  action 
of  the  sun’s  rays  little  granules  of  this  chlorophyll  bunch 
themselves  together  into  masses  called  chloroplasts,  each 
of  which,  on  examination,  is  seen  to  be  a  manufacturing 
centre  of  the  nutriment  upon  which  the  fife  of  the  tree  or 
plant  depends.  This  is  the  tiny  hinge  on  which  the  door 
of  fife  for  man  and  beast  has  been  made  to  swing.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  Professor  Huxley,  the  vegetable  Kingdom  is  the 
only  one  that  really  works.  As  for  the  animal  Kingdom, 
all  its  members  from  man  downwards  to  the  amoeba,  are 
only  consumers  of  manufactured  products,  non-producers, 
mere  hangers-on  !  The  green  leaf  is  the  whirling  seat  and 
centre  of  ceaseless  activity. 

In  considering  the  life  of  a  tree  we  have  been  accustomed 
to  stress  the  importance  of  the  root.  This,  however,  in 
the  fight  of  what  we  have  seen,  is  a  case  of  misplaced 
emphasis,  and  it  is  the  leaf  upon  which  the  accent  must 
fall.  It  is  true  that  the  root  is  responsible  for  supplying 
the  water-power  without  which  the  machinery  of  assimila¬ 
tion,  development,  and  reproduction  could  not  be  run. 
Upon  the  root  also  devolves  the  duty  of  extracting  and 
passing  on  certain  salts  from  the  soil  which  go  to  the 
structure  of  the  tree.  These  are,  however,  so  amazingly 


METABOLISM 


47 


small  in  proportion  to  the  trees  bulk  as  practically  to  be 
a  negligible  quantity. 

Timiriazeff,  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of 
Moscow,  conducted  a  most  interesting  experiment  in 
reference  to  this  fact.  He  planted  a  willow  wand  weighing 
five  pounds  in  a  pot  containing  exactly  two  hundred 
pounds  weight  of  soil.  He  watched  and  watered  this 
wand  for  five  years,  after  which  he  carefully  lifted  it  out, 
removing  every  grain  of  adhering  soil,  to  discover  that 
it  now  weighed  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  pounds 
three  ounces.  But  so  little  had  it  drawn  from  the  soil 
itself,  that  when  the  latter  was  weighed  it  was  found  to 
be  but  two  ounces  less  than  the  original  two  hundred 
pounds.  Instead,  then,  of  the  root,  it  is  the  leaf  that 
represents  the  point  where  the  real  business  of  the  tree  is 
carried  on,  and  the  most  vital  relations  are  set  up  and 
sustained.  When  a  seed  is  cast  off  by  the  parent  tree  it  is 
started  out  clad  in  a  suitable  case,  under  cover  of  which 
are  packed  up  all  its  requirements,  including  a  measure  of 
manufactured  and  concentrated  nutriment  for  setting  up 
housekeeping  on  its  own  account.  Should  it  find  suitable 
soil  it  straightway  responds  and  lets  loose  its  latent 
energies.  Once  the  wondrous  machinery  of  life  is  thus 
set  going  it  is  run  for  a  time  on  inherited  fuel — the  portion 
of  goods  falling  to  it,  so  to  speak,  upon  leaving  home, 
and  which  is  enough  to  start  it  in  life  for  itself  with  a  fair 
chance  of  success.  By  the  time  the  root  has  struck  down 
and  the  shoot  thrust  up,  the  plant’s  capital,  in  the  way 
of  inherited  stores,  is  used  up,  so  that  it  now  requires 
to  take  its  hands  out  of  its  pockets  and  work  for 
its  daily  bread.  These  hands  are  its  leaves,  and  the 


48 


METABOLISM 


independent  life  of  the  plant  begins  from  the  moment  that 
the  first  ray  of  light  falls  upon  its  unfolding  leaf.  Until 
the  ray  of  sunlight  thus  falls  upon  the  leaf’s  surface  its 
activity  cannot  begin.  This  activity  is  directed  to 
extracting  and  assimilating  the  carbon  that  is  stored  up  in 
the  atmosphere.  In  the  atmosphere  it  is  in  combination 
with  oxygen,  but  the  chlorophyll  in  the  leaf  breaks  down 
this  combination,  absorbs  the  carbon  and  releases  the 
oxygen.  Upon  the  leaf  is  thrown  the  entire  responsibility 
of  keeping  up  the  food  supply  for  the  tree’s  support. 
It  becomes  the  centre  of  exchange,  the  transforming 
station  where  inorganic  matter  is  changed  into  organic 
and  thus  the  life  of  the  tree  maintained.  The  green  leaf, 
according  to  biology,  is  the  one  and  only  medium  whereby 
solar  energy  becomes  translated  into  vital  force,  and  is 
made  available  for  use  by  man  and  beast,  for  without  the 
green  leaf  there  is  absolutely  nothing  that  could  live. 
Now  that  which  in  the  spiritual  life,  whether  individual 
or  communal,  corresponds  to  the  function  of  the  leaf 
in  the  way  of  appropriating  and  assimilating  the 
forces  of  another  and  a  higher  world,  is,  according  to  the 
whole  teaching  of  both  scripture  and  experience,  the 
function  of  faith.  Unless  by  a  living  faith  we  are  in 
account  current  with  the  spiritual  forces  that  are  banked 
to  our  credit,  we  must  blanch  into  anaemia  and  fall  into 
spiritual  decline.  Or  to  retain  the  metaphor  of  the 
Psalmist,  instead  of  being  like  a  tree  planted  by  the 
rivers  of  water,  we  shall  be  merely  a  drift  of  dried  and 
driven  leaves.  Nor  is  it  merely  that  the  spiritual  life 
in  such  a  case  becomes  dwarfed  and  diminished.  There 
results  an  all-round  depreciation  of  values.  Every 


METABOLISM 


49 


department  of  life,  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral, 
depends  for  its  reinforcement  on  the  soul.  We  do  not 
dream  how  deeply  central  is  the  religious  factor,  nor  how 
powerful  it  is  in  determining  our  social,  political,  and 
industrial  values.  We  can  do  our  best  work  in  this 
world  only  as  we  draw  on  that  world  for  our  supplies. 
What  the  sun  is  to  the  leaf,  that  and  infinitely  more  is 
God  to  the  soul.  Only  in  correspondence  with  Him  who 
is  the  Life  of  fife,  the  Light  of  light  and  the  Fountain  of 
all  the  forces  that  sweep  in  and  around  us,  can  we  discover 
either  our  greatest  bliss  or  our  highest  efficiency.  To 
shut  ourselves  up  in  this  material  world,  with  no  outlook 
or  outreach  toward  another,  is  to  stultify  our  being  and 
defraud  it  of  its  flower  and  crown.  Never  was  the  need 
so  great  as  at  the  present  to  hold  fast  to  moral  values. 
In  these  days  when  everything  is  being  cast  into  the 
melting-pot,  the  utmost  care  must  be  taken  lest  through 
want  of  due  discrimination  the  pure  gold  of  truth  should 
be  rejected  in  mistake  for  its  alloy.  We  must  beware 
lest  in  proving  all  things  we  let  slip  that  which  is  good. 
In  our  reaction  from  the  tyranny  of  tradition  there  is 
danger  of  our  being  snared  by  our  own  self-sufficiency 
and  conceit,  in  which  case  instead  of  gaining  freedom  we 
shall  merely  have  changed  masters.  ‘  Conscious  action/ 
says  Professor  Haldane  in  a  fine  contribution  to  the 
Hibbert  Journal  of  April  last,  ‘  is  not  just  the  fleeting 
activity  of  the  moment  but  directly  involves  the  past  and 
the  future.  Organic  unity  of  what  is  present  is  implied 
in  unconscious  life  ;  but  organic  unity  of  present,  past, 
and  future  is  implied  in  conscious  life.  The  reason  why 
each  generation  has  to  rewrite  the  history  of  the  past  is 
4 


5o 


METABOLISM 


that  the  present  is  making,  just  as  much  as  it  is  being 
made  by,  the  past/  Though  then,  like  the  tree,  our  roots 
may  be  struck  deep  into  the  soil  of  the  dead  past,  our 
leaves  must  unfold  in  the  living  present,  if  we  are  to 
fulfil  our  spiritual  trust  to  the  expectant  future  : 

Becoming  cs  is  meet  and  fit, 

A  link  among  the  days,  to  knit 
The  generations  each  to  each. 

/ 

Life,  then,  must  itself  seize  upon  fife,  try  it  out,  and 
extract  its  uttermost  good.  But  its  uttermost  good  is 
the  will  of  God,  and  it  is  in  appropriating  that  will  as  the 
Law  of  its  being  that  fife  can  alone  come  to  efficiency  as  a 
working  force  whether  in  the  individual  or  the  Church. 
Thus  alone  can  it  become  armed  : 

With  Power  on  this  dark  world  to  lighten  it, 

And  Power  on  this  dead  world  to  make  it  five. 

There  is  a  deep  suggestiveness  in  Christ’s  declaration 
that  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  His  Father  He  found 
refreshment  and  reinforcement.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
all  man’s  power,  whether  in  the  world  of  matter  or  of 
spirit,  is  derived  from  obedience.  Everywhere  he  is 
required  to  line  up  with  law.  All  the  forces  of  nature 
bend  their  necks  to  the  obedient.  We  are  powerful  only 
as  we  get  into  step  with  nature.  To  enlist  her  help  we 
must  go  her  way.  We  talk  in  our  arrogant  fashion  about 
our  subjugation  of  her  forces,  but  the  whole  history  of  our 
applied  sciences  is  simply  the  story  of  how  we  have  learnt 
to  obey.  Our  meat  in  a  physical  sense  is  won  by  doing 


METABOLISM 


5i 


the  will  of  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  a  will  that  is 
expressed  in  the  laws  and  forces  of  the  material  order 
under  which  we  have  been  placed. 

Now  despite  the  fact  that  scientific  men  repeatedly  warn 
us  against  the  practice,  we  are  for  ever  confounding  the 
words  ‘  law  *  and  *  force  '  as  though  they  were  inter¬ 
changeable  terms.  We  have  to  remember  that  laws 
cannot  do  anything.  The  laws  of  navigation  never  steered 
a  ship.  The  laws  of  arithmetic  never  solved  a  problem. 
The  laws  of  grammar  never  constructed  a  sentence, 
neither  did  the  law  of  gravitation  ever  move  an  atom  or 
a  world.  Laws  are  simply  the  uniform  methods  by 
which  forces  have  been  observed  to  manifest  their  presence 
and  power.  But  the  persistence  with  which  we  go  on 
using  these  two  words  interchangeably  suggests  that  their 
association  is  a  necessity  of  thought,  and  that  we  cannot 
think  of  them  apart.  Indeed,  in  his  Reign  of  Law ,  Argyll 
says:  ‘An  observed  order  of  facts,  to  be  entitled  to  the 
rank  of  a  law,  must  be  an  order  so  constant  and  uniform 
as  to  indicate  necessity,  and  necessity  can  only  arise  out 
of  the  action  of  some  compelling  Force.  Law,  therefore, 
comes  to  indicate  not  merely  an  observed  order  of  facts, 
but  that  order  as  involving  the  action  of  some  force  or 
forces  of  which  nothing  more  may  be  known  than  these 
visible  effects;  so  that  Force  is  the  root  idea  of  Law  in  its 
scientific  sense/ 

Now  if  it  can  be  shown  that  Force  is  the  root  idea  of 
Law  in  its  moral  and  spiritual  sense  as  well,  an  immense 
gain  in  comfort  and  assurance  will  be  secured.  For 
example,  there  is  the  law  ‘Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God/  &c.  Now  if  by  putting  our  will  in  fine  with  this 


52 


METABOLISM 


formula  we  discover  that  instead  of  being  a  dead  counsel 
of  perfection  standing  aloof  and  inoperative  over  against 
our  lives  it  is  really  a  live  wire  which  by  induction  charges 
our  will  with  its  own  mighty  dynamic,  we  begin  to  under¬ 
stand  the  reason  for  the  rapture  of  the  godly  life.  The 
delight  in  the  Law  of  the  Lord  described  by  the  Psalmist 
is  seen  springing,  not  from  the  contemplation  from  without 
of  a  cold  set  of  statutory  regulations,  but  from  the  con¬ 
sciousness  of  being  caught  up,  possessed,  and  swept 
along  by  a  stream  of  spiritual  force  running  on  concur¬ 
rently  with  the  regulation,  and  of  which  the  regulation 
is  merely  the  recognized  and  registered  expression. 

The  godly  man  is  the  man  who  has  gained  the  true 
spirit  of  the  law.  He  has  incorporated  within  himself  that 
persistent  energy  that  never  fails  nor  flags,  but  flows 
through  all  things  and  creates  the  harmony  which  every¬ 
where  prevails  throughout  the  world  of  things.  It  is  the 
spirit  of  Duty  which  Wordsworth  perceived  and  com¬ 
munion  with  which  he  loved.  But  it  may  be  asked,  Does 
not  Law  mean  restriction,  and  how  can  any  one  delight  in 
restriction  ?  One  can  understand  the  feeling  of  respect 
for  law,  reverence  for  law,  resignation  to  law,  or  even  of 
acquiescence  in  law,  but  ‘  delight  ’  and  ‘  law  '  seem  to  be 
mutually  exclusive  terms.  Well,  that  all  depends  upon 
how  the  restriction  is  interpreted,  and  that  again  upon 
the  amount  of  intelligence  that  is  brought  to  play  upon  its 
study.  Indeed,  it  is  the  absence  of  intelligence  to  which 
must  be  attributed  the  attitude  of  many  minds  to  the 
whole  question  of  law  and  order  as  it  stands  incorporated 
in  the  State.  When  one  takes  the  trouble  to  penetrate 
to  the  inner  meaning  of  restrictive  legislation  in  any 


METABOLISM 


53 


direction,  he  will  presently  be  face  to  face  with  the  spirit 
of  beneficence.  Instead  of  some  arbitrary  rule  instituted 
for  the  purpose  of  imposing  vexing  limitations  on  one’s 
freedom,  it  turns  out  on  examination  to  be  the  very  last 
word  in  the  way  of  matured  experience,  clever  device,  and 
solicitous  desire  for  securing  human  safety  and  well¬ 
being.  That  is  to  say,  the  vital  principle  which  prompted 
the  framing  of  the  law  stands  disclosed,  and  once  a  man 
grasps  this  his  whole  attitude  towards  its  requirements 
and  restrictions  is  changed.  Law  thus  construed  is  seen 
not  to  limit  but  greatly  to  enlarge  the  freedom  of  one’s 
action.  He  who  imagines  that  there  would  be  more 
freedom  if  all  laws  were  abrogated  has  not  learnt  how  to 
think.  Let  him  shift  his  home  and  his  business  to  a  land 
where  every  man  does  what  is  right  in  his  own  eyes,  and 
he  will  very  soon  discover  that  escape  from  law  means 
escape  from  hberty.  All  law  runs  back  into  a  mind  that 
thinks  and  plans  for  us  and  a  heart  that  feels  and 
loves. 

True  blessedness,  then,  according  to  the  Psalmist,  lies 
in  putting  one’s  self  and  keeping  one’s  self  in  the  stream 
of  the  divine  purpose.  That  purpose  is  expressed  in  His 
law,  and  that  law  is,  as  we  have  said, likewise  a  living  force 
that  makes  for  righteousness.  Every  divine  command 
thus  becomes  a  divine  pledge. 

The  words  ‘  Thou  shalt  ’  contain  a  prophecy,  for  whom 
God  commands  He  likewise  empowers,  and  the  force  to 
obey  will  be  found  streaming  along  the  fine  of  the  law 
and  empowering  the  will  to  obey. 

Nature  is  simply  God’s  will  working  through  matter, 
Grace  is  God’s  will  working  through  personality.  Each 


54 


METABOLISM 


demands  obedience  and  co-operation  to  come  to  full 
expression  on  the  field  of  human  affairs,  and  both  together 
represent  the  organized  love  of  God.  What  the  blood- 
plasma  is  to  the  body  personal,  that  the  love  of  God  may 
be  regarded  as  being  to  the  body  corporate.  According 
to  science  this  blood-plasma  is  the  richest  fluid  known, 
so  much  so  that  many  of  its  properties  are  as  yet  un¬ 
guessed.  So  with  the  love  of  God  it  is  rich  with  all  the 
untold  wealth  of  the  divine  nature.  Indeed  it  is  the 
divine  nature,  for  God  is  Love.  But  love  has  been 
degraded  in  the  minds  of  men,  and  so  soiled  by  all  ignoble 
use  that  it  has  come  to  stand  for  mere  sentiment,  and  that 
not  always  of  the  most  virile  and  healthy  type.  But  the 
love  of  God  must  be  held  as  the  gathering  up  of  all  His 
attributes  into  one  all-inclusive  and  compendious  term. 
Through  love  they  come  to  perfection  and  break  into 
bloom.  To  love  they  are  all  subordinate,  casting  their 
crowns  at  its  feet.  Excepting  through  love  they  are  not 
to  be  conceived.  ‘  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but 
by  Me,’  said  Christ,  which  is  only  another  way  of  saying 
that  the  key  to  the  knowledge  of  God  is  Love.  Indeed 
there  is  no  problem  to  which  love  does  not  hold  the  key. 
One  in  essence,  love  breaks  up  into  myriads  of  manifesta¬ 
tions.  It  is  the  moral  ether  enfolding  and  interfusing 
all  worlds.  On  its  bosom  they  are  all  afloat.  In  its 
strong  and  tender  keeping  the  universe  swings  and  sings. 
Because  love  is  the  essence  of  God’s  mysterious  nature,  it 
is  necessarily  the  structural  principle  of  His  Creation — 
its  innermost,  uttermost  law.  It  has  been  conceived  by 
love,  created  by  love,  redeemed  by  love,  and  from  the 
first-born  seraph  before  His  throne  to  the  lowest  creature 


METABOLISM 


55 


on  His  footstool  all  being  is  encircled  by  its  tender  and 
protecting  embrace. 

In  this  divine  love  then  as  a  nutrient  element,  charged 
with  all  the  qualities  of  the  divine  nature,  the  Church, 
which  is  the  Body  of  Christ,  must  keep  itself  bathed. 
Love  gathers  up  and  coalesces  all  the  ethical  and  spiritual 
forces  which  we  have  been  taught  to  associate  with  our 
conception  of  God.  His  holy  love  must  not  be  construed 
in  sentimental  terms.  It  is  really  the  sum  of  all  His 
attributes.  It  is  their  full  explication.  They  reach  their 
focal  point  in  love.  Through  love  they  are  administered 
and  controlled.  Every  attribute  of  God  is  thus  the 
servant  of  His  love.  As  Martensen  points  out,  ‘  The  three 
principles  to  which  all  reflection  on  existence  turns  as 
being  the  ultimate — the  physical,  the  logical,  and  the 
ethical — must  in  the  unity  of  the  divine  will  be  eternally 
united  as  one  indissoluble  life,  in  which  there  is  a  relation 
of  supremacy  and  of  subordination,  so  that  the  ethical,  or 
love,  is  the  subject,  the  others  its  predicates.’ 

In  discussing  the  first  article  of  the  Christian  creed,  the 
same  writer  shows  that  ‘  it  is  expressly  said  that  God  as 
Creator  is  the  unity  of  love  and  power  ;  and  if  it  is  not 
expressly  said  it  is  undoubtedly  implied  that  Almighty 
love  creates  with  wisdom,  that  is  to  say  teleologically,  or 
with  certain  ends  in  view  ’  ;  again,  *  All  the  divine  attri¬ 
butes  are  combined  in  love  as  in  their  centre  and  vital 
principle.  Wisdom  is  its  intelligence,  might  its  produc¬ 
tivity  ;  the  entire  natural  creation  and  the  entire  revela¬ 
tion  of  righteousness  in  history  are  means  by  which  it 
attains  its  teleological  aims.’1 

1  Christian  Ethics,  p.  66  (General). 


56 


METABOLISM 


God  is  love  and  God  is  light,  and  just  as  white  light 
breaks  up  into  the  sevenfold  glory  of  the  rainbow,  so 
Holy  Love  may  be  regarded  as  breaking  up  into  the  many- 
hued  splendour  of  the  divine  attributes  and  displaying 
itself  in  wisdom,  power,  truth,  righteousness,  justice, 
mercy,  and  wrath.  For  even  wrath,  when  displayed  by 
God,  is  not  to  be  conceived  of  excepting  as  a  manifestation 
of  His  love — it  has  a  moral  purpose  behind  it  and  a  moral 
goal  toward  which  it  works,  in  front.  God  cannot 
punish  for  punishment’s  sake  but  for  love’s  sake,  and  with 
righteousness  as  an  end  in  view.  His  wrath  is  His  love, 
burning  with  indignation  against  everything  that  would 
thwart  or  hinder  the  realization  of  its  beneficent  desire. 
His  righteousness  is  His  love,  seeking  to  achieve  the 
highest  good  of  His  creatures  through  writing  the  eternal 
law  of  rectitude  within  their  hearts.  His  truth  is  His 
love,  making  its  appeal  to  the  intelligence  of  man, 
commanding  the  homage  of  his  mind,  and  becoming  the 
structural  principle  of  the  spiritual  community  into 
which  he  is  being  organized.  So  important  is  this 
question  of  truth  to  the  edification  of  the  ‘  Body  of 
Christ,’  that  it  will  be  well  for  us  to  dwell  for  a  while 
on  its  necessity.  It  is  so  emphatically  the  first  grand 
requirement  among  those  who  desire  to  live  in  fellow¬ 
ship,  whether  spiritual,  social,  or  national,  that  it  is 
well  worth  while  to  see  its  bearing  on  the  present  crisis 
in  world  affairs. 

God’s  truth  is  ‘  the  Truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,’  and  that  is 
love’s  challenge  to  the  social  instinct  to  fulfil  itself  and 
thus  enable  the  individual  to  come  to  fullest  self-realiza¬ 
tion  in  this  finest  of  all  fellowships.  Every  one  that  is  of 


METABOLISM 


57 


the  truth,  hears  the  voice  of  truth,  attracts  truth,  as¬ 
similates  truth,  grows  into  it  and  becomes  so  one  with  it 
as  to  work  hand  in  hand  with  it  against  all  falsity  and 
pretence.  Truth  is  the  fundamental  condition  of  cor¬ 
porate  life.  It  is  the  integrating  principle  without  which 
no  co-operation  is  possible.  Hence  says  the  apostle, 
‘  Wherefore  putting  away  falsehood,  speak  ye  truth  each 
one  with  his  neighbour ;  for  we  are  members  one  of 
another.  *  The  Church,  which  is  the  Body  of  Christ,  should 
present  to  the  world  the  very  highest  expression  of  this 
truth-speaking  and  truth-doing  law.  The  love  of  truth 
is  a  tradition  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  race,  and  this  tradition 
is  a  trust  that  the  Church  is  mainly  responsible  not  only 
for  preserving  from  desecration,  but  for  reinforcing  both 
within  her  own  ranks  and  in  the  larger  life  of  the  State. 
Her  business,  of  course,  is  not  to  control  the  State,  but 
to  inspire  and  control  the  men  who  do.  Who  can  doubt 
that  had  the  Christian  Church  in  Germany  stood  for 
simple,  downright  truth,  preaching  it  from  all  her  pulpits 
and  teaching  it  in  all  her  schools,  the  cataclysm  from 
which  the  world  is  staggering  to-day  would  never  have 
occurred  !  When  the  Psalmist  affirmed  that  the  man 
who,  having  sworn  to  his  own  hurt  and  changed  not, 
should  never  be  moved,  he  was  laying  down  the  funda¬ 
mental  condition,  not  only  of  individual  but  of  national 
security.  And  it  is  because  the  truth-speaking  function 
is  so  vital,  not  only  to  the  well-being  but  to  the  very 
being  of  the  community,  that  the  Church  of  Christ  should 
stand  as  its  generating  and  radiant  centre,  insisting  on 
its  translation  into  national  and  international  terms. 
The  nation,  of  course,  is  merely  the  individual  multiplied, 


58 


METABOLISM 


and  what  is  true  of  the  units  is  in  this  case  true  of  the 
mass  into  which  they  are  merged. 

A  proper  regard  for  one’s  pledged  word,  even  according 
to  the  more  primitive  morality  of  earlier  ages,  was  the 
mark  of  a  stable,  because  incorruptible,  manhood.  By 
implication,  disregard  for  private  probity  was  the  sure 
precursor  of  displacement  from  public  confidence  and 
power.  Nationhood  and  manhood  are  alike  subject  to 
the  selfsame  laws,  the  violation  of  which  must  bring  the 
selfsame  penalties.  These  penalties  are  inflicted,  not  by 
some  stroke  of  direct  and  divine  interference,  still  less 
by  any  automatic  action  of  blind  and  unintelligent 
force.  They  are  administered  normally  and  through 
the  pressure  of  the  corporate  conscience  of  the  com¬ 
munity,  which,  mediated  through  its  properly  constituted 
authority,  insists  in  calm  and  magisterial  terms  that  the 
individual  or  the  company  that  is  guilty  of  repudiation 
and  corruption  shall  be  dealt  with  as  a  public  enemy, 
and  reduced  by  force,  if  necessary,  to  a  condition  and 
position  in  which  it  will  cease  to  be  a  menace  to  the 
common  weal. 

It  was  in  pursuance  of  this  principle,  and  as  represent¬ 
ing  the  affronted  conscience,  not  merely  of  Britain,  but 
of  the  world  ;  it  was  in  the  administration  of  retributive 
discipline  that  in  August,  1914,  Britain’s  troops  massed 
on  the  Continent,  and  her  fleet  swept  the  sea.  The 
righteousness  or  otherwise  of  that  interference  turns  on 
the  question  as  to  whether  a  nation’s  obligations  are 
exhausted  when  she  fulfils  her  own  obligation  in  regard 
to  the  observance  of  treaty  bonds,  or  whether  she  is  in 
duty  bound  to  enforce  a  corresponding  recognition  and 


METABOLISM 


59 


discharge  of  covenant  compacts  on  the  part  of  other 
mutually  contracting  Powers.  This  matter  may,  of 
course,  be  subject  to  complication  by  the  further  question 
of  ability.  A  weak  woman,  for  example,  may  witness 
some  glaring  piece  of  injustice  or  oppression  inflicted  on 
a  neighbour,  and  though  her  blood  be  boiling  with 
indignation,  she  may  be  utterly  powerless  to  prevent 
or  redress  the  wrong  which,  with  all  the  intensity  of  her 
moral  nature,  she  resents.  In  such  a  case,  of  course,  the 
mere  verbal  denunciation  of  the  wrong  might  meet  all 
the  immediate  moral  necessities  of  the  case,  much  as  she 
would  rejoice  in  bringing  restraining  and  even  retribu¬ 
tive  measures  into  play.  Thus  if  Britain  had  been  in 
the  position  of  a  second  or  third-rate  power,  she  too  might 
have  been  compelled  in  this  instance  to  be  content  to 
stand  by,  and  simply  record  her  protest  against  any 
unjustifiable  breach  of  treaty  engagements  on  the  part 
of  a  contracting  continental  power.  But  when  her  sense 
of  outraged  international  honour  was  found  coupled 
with  the  power  to  insist  that  covenants  should  be  either 
kept  or  the  truce-breaker  brought  to  book,  there  was 
but  one  alternative.  The  solidarity  of  nations,  like  that 
of  individuals,  carries  with  it  corporate  as  well  as  in¬ 
dividual  responsibilities.  Every  relationship  of  fife  is 
thus  counterpoised.  The  advantages  arising  from 
federated  interests  are  balanced  by  corresponding  obliga¬ 
tions,  and  to  accept  the  advantages  of  the  one  while 
defaulting  in  the  duties  of  the  other  is  to  range  the 
defaulter  among  the  morally  unfit. 

As  a  nation  we  had  no  personal  antipathy  to  Germany  . 
Unlike  the  French,  we  had  no  deep-seated  and  long- 


6o 


METABOLISM 


cherished  resentment  to  appease,  no  old-standing 
grievances  to  redress.  We  had  cultivated  the  friendliest 
relations,  and  so  far  at  least  as  our  protestations  were 
concerned,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  they  were  ‘  made  in 
England/  and  bore  the  brand  of  British  sincerity. 
Nothing,  therefore,  but  the  sternest  sense  of  international 
duty  could  have  set  in  motion  Britain’s  machinery  of 
war.  Our  presence  on  the  field,  then,  rightly  construed, 
meant  not  enmity  to  Germany  but  love  of  truth,  not 
opposition  to  a  nation  but  resistance  to  a  policy  of 
persistent  lying  and  intrigue,  not  envy  of  the  strong  but 
chivalry  for  the  weak.  It  was  not  that  we  were  jealous 
of  a  rival  power,  but  zealous  for  international  honour  and 
fair  play.  This  motive,  that  prompted  not  only  the  men 
in  high  places,  who  dictated  the  policy  of  the  nation  and 
shaped  the  whisper  of  the  throne,  but  also  inspired  the 
men  of  the  day’s  march  who  had  caught  the  chivalrous 
spirit  of  Kitchener’s  charge,  lifted  this  conflict  clean  out 
of  the  category  of  war  for  the  extension  of  territory, 
national  aggrandizement,  or  even  the  avenging  of  a  purely 
national  wrong,  and  made  it  a  sternly  judicial  act,  under¬ 
taken  with  all  the  solemnity  and  deliberation  of  a  legal 
tribunal,  and  with  an  overwhelming  sense  of  both 
responsibility  and  regret.  Even  King  Arthur’s  knights 
of  the  Round  Table  were  not  sent  forth  more  straitly 
bound  than  were  our  troops,  when  Kitchener  charged 
them  to  fear  God,  to  honour  the  King,  and  to  refrain 
from  liquor,  loot,  and  licence  amid  the  fierce  temptations 
of  the  camp  and  field.  It  was  simply  Arthur’s  stately 
charge  translated  into  the  modem  Briton’s  ‘  straight-flung 
words  and  few.’ 


METABOLISM 


61 


Now  a  nation  cannot  take  this  lofty  stand  and  assume 
the  part  of  arbiter  among  her  sister  nations  without 
making  herself  the  focal  point  for  the  eyes  of  all  the 
world.  Though  her  purpose  be  as  chaste  as  ice  and 
pure  as  snow,  yet  will  it  not  escape  calumny.  She,  how¬ 
ever,  must  not  be  deterred  by  any  such  dread.  Of  one 
thing  alone  must  she  be  assured  in  her  own  conscience, 
and  that  is  that  her  own  eye  is  single,  her  own  intention 
pure.  For  the  rest  she  must  simply  trust  and  not  be  afraid. 

Now  Britain's  action  in  that  crisis  ought  to  have  at 
least  this  reflex  moral  result  upon  all  of  us  her  children. 
It  should  lead  to  great  searching  of  heart.  It  is  one 
thing  to  wax  indignant  over  other  people's  wrong-doing. 
It  is  quite  another  to  attack  and  correct  our  own.  It 
is  one  thing  to  gather  ourselves  up  for  a  crisis  ;  it  is 
quite  another  to  play  the  game  in  common  life,  behind 
the  counter,  at  the  bench,  in  the  office,  the  factory,  the 
market,  and  the  exchange.  There  is  not  one  standard 
of  honour  for  a  man  at  the  front  and  another  for  the 
man  at  the  back.  When  a  nation  judges  others  as  our 
nation  judged  Germany,  she  challenges  judgement  on 
herself,  and  woe  to  her  if  the  standard  she  sets  for  them 
be  higher  than  she  herself  attempts,  especially  if,  as  in 
the  case  before  us,  she  acts  as  judge  and  executioner  in 
one.  The  stand  she  took  really  put  every  Britisher  on 
his  trial,  and  thus  fulfilled  the  Saviour’s  words,  ‘  With 
what  judgement  ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged.’  It  threw 
every  man  and  woman  of  us  back  upon  our  national 
traditions  and  confronted  us  with  our  national  ideals. 
But  national  honour  is  after  all  only  the  sum  of  our 
personal,  domestic,  social,  and  commercial  honour,  and 


62 


METABOLISM 


any  falling  off  in  departmental  morality  must  reappear 
and  register  itself  in  corporate  deterioration.  Of  course, 
we  may  keep  up  our  window-show  long  after  our  shelves 
have  been  depleted,  but  it  will  be  only  a  question  of  time 
as  to  when  the  hollow”  mockery  will  be  laid  bare.  Look 
at  it  this  way.  Let  us  suppose  that  we  have  been  doing 
business  with  a  house  that  combines  both  a  wholesale 
and  retail  trade.  Our  relations  have  been  limited 
strictly  to  the  retail  department.  After  a  few  months 
we  discover  that  we  have  been  the  victims  of  systematic 
fraud,  sometimes  in  the  way  of  underweight,  sometimes 
in  overcharge,  sometimes  in  adulteration,  and  other 
methods  of  misrepresentation  too  well  known  to  need 
description.  We  approach  the  manager  with  our  com¬ 
plaint,  with  the  result  that,  while  admitting  irregularities  in 
the  direction  we  mention,  he  advances,  by  way  of  extenua¬ 
tion,  the  extraordinary  plea  that  in  the  opinion  of  the 
house  retail  immorality  is  amply  atoned  for  by  the  strict 
moral  censorship  which  is  exercised  over  all  its  wholesale 
transactions,  which  he  claims  are  above  reproach. 

Now,  apart  from  the  difficulty  we  should  have  in  see¬ 
ing  how  this  could  in  any  way  recoup  us  for  our  losses, 
we  would  find  it  hard  to  believe  that  a  house  that  was  so 
utterly  unscrupulous  in  its  over-the-counter  dealings 
could  suddenly  become  so  scrupulously  conscientious 
immediately  it  came  to  deal  with  goods  in  bulk.  So 
with  regard  to  private  and  national  honour.  It  is  idle 
for  us  to  think  that  we  can  preserve  our  truth-loving, 
truth-speaking  traditions  in  all  their  ancient  strength 
and  purity  if  we  seek  to  limit  their  exercise  to  occasions 
of  international  exhibition  and  diplomatic  display. 


METABOLISM 


63 


Once  we  reserve  to  ourselves  as  a  people  the  right  to 
play  fast  and  loose  with  truth  and  honour  within  the 
circle  of  what  may  be  called  our  retail  relations,  we 
sentence  our  wholesale  honour  to  death.  In  reality  the 
two  are  one.  Our  international  fidelity  is  simply  the 
thousand  and  one  fidelities  of  common  fife  aggregated, 
expanded,  and  finding  expression  in  more  spacious  terms, 
while  on  the  other  hand  our  private  honour  must  be  the 
perennial  source  and  fount  by  which  all  the  streams 
of  international  fidelity  are  fed  and  reinforced. 

Now  if  these  cataclysms  do  nothing  else  for  us  but 
reveal  that,  after  all,  the  great  basal  principles  upon  which 
civilization  rests  are  moral  rather  than  material  considera¬ 
tions,  and  that  to  ignore  or  override  them  is  to  court 
national  defeat  and  displacement,  we  shall  have  learnt 
a  lesson,  the  value  of  which  will  far  outweigh  only  merely 
material  loss.  The  keeping  of  troth  between  nations  is 
an  obligation  so  sacredly  binding  that  there  are  no  words 
sufficiently  strong  in  which  to  reprobate  so  black  a 
scandal  as  its  violation  would  be.  International  fidelity 
is  an  absolute  condition  of  the  world’s  peace  ;  perfidy 
must  inevitably  lead  to  rupture.  There  can  be  no  inter¬ 
course  where  there  is  no  confidence.  In  any  contest 
between  truth  and  falseness,  whether  in  the  case  of 
individuals  or  communities,  whether  it  has  to  do  with 
simple  over-the-counter  transactions  or  great  and  com¬ 
plex  international  treaties,  the  he,  whether  personal, 
social,  commercial,  national  or  international,  must  suffer 
defeat  and  condemnation.  When  the  man  in  the  street 
stigmatizes  a  mendacious  statement  as  a  ‘  damned  lie/ 
though  he  may  speak  in  heat,  he  is  simply  uttering  a 


64 


METABOLISM 


cold  fact.  Every  lie  is  damned,  utterly  and  hopelessly. 
It  has  not  a  chance  of  survival,  the  whole  universe  is 
against  it,  and  nothing  will  be  found  to  give  it  shelter. 
All  things  conspire  to  betray  and  curse  it  for  the  cowardly 
thing  it  is.  Francis  Thompson's  great  lines  might  well 
become  the  lips  of  the  liar  as  he  speeds  from  the  spirit 
of  truth  : 

I  fled  Him  down  the  nights  and  down  the  days  ; 

I  fled  Him  down  the  arches  of  the  years  ; 

I  fled  Him  down  the  labyrinthine  ways 
Of  my  own  mind  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  tears 
I  hid  from  Him,  and  under  running  laughter, 

Up  vistaed  hopes  I  sped  ; 

And  shot,  precipitated 
Adown  Titanic  glooms  of  chasmed  fears, 

From  those  strong  feet  that  followed,  followed  after, 

But  with  unhurrying  chase. 

And  unperturbed  pace. 

Deliberate  speed,  majestic  instancy, 

They  beat,  and  a  Voice  beat, 

More  instant  than  the  feet, 

‘  All  things  betray  thee,  who  betrayest  Me.’ 

Truth,  then,  is  the  first  grand  necessity  ;  it  is  the 
greatest  personal  or  national  asset.  The  truth-loving, 
truth-speaking,  truth-doing  peoples  of  the  earth  alone 
have  the  right  of  survival.  They  build  themselves  into 
the  permanent  structure  of  the  moral  order,  which 
nothing  can  shake.  Forms  of  government  perish, 
customs  change,  and  generations  come  and  go ;  but 
truth  keeps  its  ancient  seat  unmoved.  Only,  then,  as  we 
are  true  and  faithful  to  the  best  traditions  of  our  race 
can  we  be  deemed  worthy  of  continuance  as  the  custodians 
of  that  faith  and  freedom  which  we  hold  in  trust  for  all 
mankind. 


METABOLISM 


65 


Thus  each  of  the  divine  attributes  in  turn 
could  be  shown  to  be  subservient  to  Holy  Love. 
It  gathers  them  all  into  itself  and  administers  them 
in  the  spirit  of  long-suffering  patience,  of  recov¬ 
ering,  re-instating,  and  morally  re-inforcing  grace. 
The  out-pouring  blood  from  the  heart  of  the  Crucified  is 
the  divinely  selected  symbol  of  that  overflowing  love, 
which  like  a  mighty  river  swells  and  sweeps  about  the 
souls  of  men,  breaking  its  secret  of  salvation,  and  whisper¬ 
ing  its  wondrous  message  of  healing  for  their  wounds,  and 
pardon  for  their  sin.  This  love-stream,  which  is  the  life- 
stream,  corresponds  to  the  blood-plasma  of  the  human 
body  in  the  richness  of  the  qualities  which  it  carries  in 
solution,  and  like  that  blood-plasma,  supplies  the  potency 
by  which  every  unit  in  the  organized  body  of  Christ  is 
bathed  in  nutriment  and  baptized  with  power.  It  is  the 
very  nature  of  God  in  process  of  eternal  output  and 
circulation.  It  holds  all  the  vital  and  vitalizing  principles 
and  potencies  which  go  to  the  making  of  a  godlike  char¬ 
acter,  and  by  which  we  may  become  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature.  When  Paul  speaks  of  the  love  of  God  being 
‘shed  abroad  ’  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Spirit  given  to  us, 
the  same  Greek  word  is  employed  as  that  which  is  used 
to  describe  the  ‘  shedding  ’  of  Christ’s  blood  for  the  sin  of 
the  world.  In  the  one  case  it  sets  forth  God’s  universal 
love  pouring  itself  out  in  all  the  fullness  of  its  redeeming 
grace  :  in  the  other  it  is  that  selfsame  love  personally 
appropriated  and  pouring  itself  into  the  individual 
heart,  where  it  generates  and  sustains  the  '  hope  that 
maketh  not  ashamed.’ 

‘  The  Blood  of  Christ  ’  thus  interpreted  is  redeemed 

5 


66 


METABOLISM 


from  the  materialistic  conception  with  which  it  has  been 
associated  in  so  many  minds,  and  in  which  it  produced  a 
reaction  of  revolt.  Indeed,  until  the  recent  war  we  had 
grown  so  exceedingly  superfine  in  our  sentiment,  so 
fastidious  in  our  taste,  that  the  very  mention  of  the  word 
‘  blood  ’  had  become  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock  of 
offence.  We  did  not  like  to  refer  to  it  in  our  prayers  or 
sermons.  The  hymns  that  made  reference  to  the  ‘  Blood 
of  Jesus  ’  were  either  deleted  from  our  psalmody,  or  if 
sung  at  all,  it  was  with  a  shuddering  protest  against  what 
we  felt  to  be  at  discord  with  good  taste.  But  the  war 
wrought  for  us  a  wondrous  change.  During  those  woful 
and  wasting  years  of  agony  and  desolation,  the  scales 
dropped  from  our  eyes.  We  saw  things  in  true  perspec¬ 
tive.  We  began  to  revise  our  values,  to  re-cast  our 
definitions,  and  we  have  been  glad  to  call  back  quantities 
and  qualities  that  we  had  so  aesthetically  dismissed. 
Great  elemental  truths  which  we  had  either  despised,  or 
thrust  into  the  background  of  our  thought  and  speech, 
we  have  been  compelled  and  even  proud  to  recover  and 
re-assert.  The  fact  is  many  of  us  have  been  driven  from 
under  the  cover  of  our  trivialities,  our  artificialities,  our 
superficialities,  and  made  to  stand  out  in  the  open,  face 
to  face  with  the  stern  and  majestic  facts  of  life.  Thus 
it  comes  to  pass  that  we  are  glad  to  welcome  back  into 
our  vocabulary  words  which  through  careless  handling 
had  become  gross  and  materialized,  not  through  any 
fault  of  the  words  themselves,  but  through  the  coarse 
and  vulgar  conceptions  of  those  who  employed  them. 

These  great  words  we  now  discover,  some  of  us  it  may 
be  for  the  first  time,  have  been  always  standing  quietly 


METABOLISM 


67 


waiting  for  their  hour  of  approval  and  appropriation. 
They  could  afford  to  wait,  for  ‘  When  all  that  seems  shall 
suffer  shock  ’  their  content  will  abide.  If  the  war  did 
nothing  else  for  us  but  drive  us  back  upon  the  naked  and 
elemental  truths  for  which  our  great  symbols  and  watch¬ 
words  stand,  it  will  have  wrought  for  us  an  everlasting 
good.  Let  us  but  construe  the  word  *  blood  ’  in  its  New 
Testament  sense  as  the  symbol  of  supremely  spiritual 
and  spiritualizing  energy,  and  at  once  it  will  be  redeemed 
from  its  gruesomeness,  and  sing  itself  over  again  as 
sweetest  music  in  our  ears. 

For  the  members  of  Christ’s  body  to  he  bathed  in  this 
love  is  not  merely  to  be  nourished,  it  is  to  be  cleansed. 
The  lymph  stream  in  the  human  body,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
not  merely  the  bearer  to  the  cells  of  nutriment  but  the 
bearer  from  the  cells  of  waste,  as  well  as  the  agent  in 
effecting  repairs.  Christ’s  earthly  body  hungered  and 
thirsted,  grew  weary,  required  sleep,  and  stood  in  need 
of  recuperation.  In  like  manner  the  corporate  body  of 
His  Church  cannot  fulfil  its  functions  without  expenditure 
of  energy  which  has  to  be  made  up.  According  to  Royce, 

‘  A  community  is  not  a  mere  collection  of  individuals.  It 
is  a  sort  of  live  unit  that  has  organs,  as  the  body  of  an 
individual  has  organs.  A  community  grows  or  decays, 
is  healthy  or  diseased,  is  young  or  aged,  much  as  any 
individual  member  of  the  community  possesses  such 
characters.’1  Hence  the  necessity  for  what  Paul  calls, 

‘  the  renewing  (that  is  the  repairing  ministry)  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.’ 

Haldane  has  pointed  out  that  ‘  the  environments  of  the 

1  The  Problem  of  Christianity . 


68 


METABOLISM 


individual  cells  in  any  tissue  or  organ  are  not  merely  a 
general  internal  environment  common  to  all  the  cells, 
but  special  environments  dependent  on  the  influence  of 
neighbouring  cells  and  even  of  cells  in  distant  organs.  .  .  . 
It  is  on  the  special  environments  that  establish  themselves 
round  individual  cells  that  the  specific  structures  of  organs 
and  tissues  must  ultimately  depend/ 

Here,  then,  we  have  one  of  the  most  important  fruits 
of  fellowship,  and  one  which  is  full  of  suggestiveness  for 
the  members  of  the  Body  of  Christ.  There  is  a  contribu¬ 
tion  that  each  makes  to  the  others  in  association,  which 
is  altogether  wanting  in  the  event  of  such  association 
failing  to  take  place.  From  Christ  as  Head,  as  the 
Apostle  shows,  ‘  all  the  body  fitly  framed  and  knit 
together,  through  that  which  every  joint  supplieth  according 
to  the  working  in  due  measure  of  each  several  part, 
maketh  the  increase  of  the  body,  unto  the  building  up  of 
itself  in  love/  Nor  does  proximity  appear  necessary  in 
order  to  this  contribution.  Organs  distant  from  one 
another  act  and  react  toward  each  other.  All  that 
seems  to  be  necessary  is  mutual  and  sustained  relation 
to  the  head,  and  that  the  receiving  cells  shall  not  be 
idle.  They  must  be  in  full  work,  if  they  would  enjoy  full 
use  of  the  reinforcements  that  are  being  perpetually 
proffered  for  their  appropriation.  The  responsibility  is 
theirs  to  see  that  they  each  get  their  quantum  suff.  of 
nourishment,  whether  general  or  specific,  that  falls  to 
their  share,  for  ‘  these  specific  environments  depend  on 
the  activities  of  the  cells  themselves  just  as  does  the 
general  internal  environment  / 1 

1  The  Fundamental  Conceptions  of  Biology. 


METABOLISM 


69 


So  must  it  be  in  the  Church.  The  individual,  however 
closely  associated,  must  retain  his  own  distinctiveness  of 
character,  and  not  allow  it  to  be  blurred  out  or  merged 
into  that  of  another.  Only  as  he  maintains  his  specific 
features  can  he  make  his  corporate  contribution.  And 
only  as  he  makes  his  corporate  contribution  can  he  retain 
his  specific  features.  ‘  Hence/  says  Royce,  *  on  Paul’s 
own  showing  it  is  better  for  the  life  of  the  community 
if  the  individual  member,  instead  of  being  himself  “  in 
a  mystery,”  kept  his  own  individuality  in  order  to  con¬ 
tribute  his  own  edifying  gift  to  the  common  life/  Accord¬ 
ing  to  the  teaching  of  both  science  and  Scripture  the 
individual  can  be  in  poverty  through  sheer  idleness, 
although  untold  riches  are  at  his  door.  Such  a  disposi¬ 
tion  of  sloth,  however,  will  lay  him  open  to  disease  or 
arrest  of  development,  for,  as  Haldane  points  out,  ‘  Any¬ 
thing  that  interferes  with  either  special  or  general  environ¬ 
ment  results  in  cell  changes,  which  render  them  subjects 
of  study  for  the  pathological  anatomist/  Have  we  not 
here  a  quite  sufficient  explanation  of  the  many  low  and 
rudimentary  types  of  Christian  fife,  which  are  the  despair 
of  the  Church  and  the  derision  of  the  world  ?  In  a 
healthy  human  body,  as  we  have  seen,  the  lymph,  carry¬ 
ing  in  its  stream  an  untold  variety  of  provisions,  is  tapped 
in  turn  by  each  cell  or  group  of  cells  for  the  particular 
quantity  or  quality  of  nutriment  required  for  its  specific 
needs.  This  flowing  tide  of  sustenance  passes  by  every 
door,  displaying  and  offering  its  goods,  and  the  alertness 
with  which  its  clients  avail  themselves  of  its  visit  and 
take  delivery  of  their  requirements  is  proportioned  to 
their  hunger,  which  in  its  turn  is  measured  by  the  fidelity 


7  o 


METABOLISM 


with  which  they  have  fulfilled  their  several  functions. 
It  is  because  these  functions  are  so  infinitely  various  that 
the  food-stuff  must  be  so  rich  in  different  elements,  and 
one  marvels  at  the  unerring  accuracy  with  which  its 
different  customers  detect  and  select  their  own. 

The  fact  to  be  noted  and  stressed  even  at  the  risk  of  re¬ 
petition,  is  that  the  maintenance  of  all  this  traffic  and 
exchange  of  commodities  depends  according  to  biologists 
on  all  the  faculties  being  fully  employed.  For  them  to 
feed  without  functioning  would  be  to  invite  disease,  or 
arrest  development. 


METABOLISM 


7i 


2.  Katabolism  or  Dis- assimilation 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  life-process,  wherever  we 
meet  it,  is  attended  by  waste-products  and  used-up 
matter,  that,  having  served  its  purpose,  has  to  be  discarded 
and  dismissed.  The  cells  of  the  human  body  are  for  ever 
changing  and  passing  and  being  replaced.  Nor  does 
the  visible  Church,  regarded  as  the  Body  of  Christ,  present 
any  exception  to  this  rule.  Not  only  are  its  individual 
units  perpetually  passing,  and  their  places  being  taken 
by  others,  but  the  very  organism  itself  changes  and  grows, 
here  undergoing  modifications  of  structure,  and  there 
multiplying  fresh  methods  of  functioning,  according  to  the 
calls  made  upon  its  resources  and  the  new  conditions  it  is 
required  to  face.  This  power  of  adjustment  and  adapta¬ 
tion  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  so  that  she  can  speak  at  all 
times  and  to  every  man  in  his  own  tongue  wherein  he  was 
born,  this  readiness  to  ‘  become  all  things  to  all  men, 
that  by  all  means  she  may  gain  some,’  involves  such 
subordination  of  form  to  spirit,  such  discrimination 
between  organism  and  life,  as  she  is  but  slowly  and  with 
great  reluctance  coming  to  realize  and  display.  While 
it  is  true,  as  we  have  seen,  that  life  declines  to  function 
apart  from  form,  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  demands,  in 
order  that  it  may  be  free  to  adapt  itself  to  changing 
conditions  and  perpetuate  itself  from  generation  to 
generation,  that  its  form  shall  be  elastic.  Its  limitations 
must  be  such  as  serve  the  purposes  of  expansion  and 


72 


METABOLISM 


reproduction.  Once  form  becomes  so  rigid  as  to  withhold 
this  provision,  life  simply  withdraws  from  it,  refusing  to 
be  entombed.  These  vacant  forms  however,  in  which 
spiritual  life  once  functioned,  are  frequently  retained  long 
after  the  vital  force  has  fled.  But  when  religion  deterior¬ 
ates  into  a  system  of  mere  mechanics,  when  its  outward 
and  visible  signs  no  longer  stand  for  inward  and  spiritual 
grace,  sincere  and  earnest  souls,  rather  than  keep  up  the 
semblances  of  reality  in  public  worship,  prefer  to  abandon 
their  use,  and  to  retire  into  the  privacy  of  their  own  souls, 
there  to  wait  for  the  still  small  voice  of  God.  This 
however  results,  as  we  have  seen,  in  a  double  loss,  first 
to  the  individual  soul  itself,  which  cannot  ‘  find  itself  ' 
except  in  fulfilling  its  corporate  relations,  and  then  to 
the  Church,  in  being  defrauded  of  that  contribution  to  its 
efficiency  which  is  required  from  all  saints  and  all  souls. 
There  seem  to  be  only  three  possible  courses  in  such  a 
case  open  to  honourable  men.  They  can  adopt  the  course 
just  indicated  and  let  everything  outward  go,  making  the 
vacant  form  follow  the  vanished  spirit.  They  can 
attempt  to  recharge  the  ancient  forms  with  their  old-time 
life  and  power,  so  that  they  may  stand  again  as  the 
symbols  of  spiritual  and  spiritualizing  force.  Or  they 
can  throw  the  system  wholly  or  in  part  into  liquidation 
with  a  view  to  its  reconstruction  in  terms  of  present-day 
thinking  and  experience.  This  last  course  would  seem, 
in  proper  hands,  to  be  the  more  excellent  way.  We  can 
have  no  sympathy  with  those  who  are  perpetually 
changing  front,  and  who,  in  order  to  get  the  outside 
in,  are  prepared  to  turn  the  inside  out,  surrendering  on 
demand  everything  distinctive  of  the  Christian  faith  in 


METABOLISM 


73 


order  to  make  peace  with  its  foes.  They  style  themselves 
*  Liberal/  but  it  is  easy  enough  to  be  liberal  with  what 
does  not  belong  to  you.  And  the  free-handed  generosity 
of  men  who  betray  the  cause  they  are  pledged  to  defend, 
and  give  away  positions  which  millions  have  died  to 
retain,  positions  which  are  not  a  possession  to  be  squan¬ 
dered  but  a  trust  to  be  administered,  answers  to  Sydney 
Smith’s  definition  of  charity  as  being  A’s  insistence  that 
B  shall  contribute  to  C's  necessity. 

John  Morley,  in  his  Voltaire,  has  scorched  this  sort  of 
thing  with  withering  scorn  :  *  The  strange  and  sinister 
method  of  assault  upon  religion  which  we  of  a  later  day 
watch  with  wondering  eyes,  and  which  consists  in  wearing 
the  shield  and  device  of  a  faith  and  industriously  shouting 
the  cry  of  a  Church,  the  more  effectually  to  reduce  the 
faith  to  a  vague  futility,  and  its  outward  ordering  to  a 
piece  of  ingeniously  reticulated  pretence  ;  this  method 
of  attack  might  make  even  the  champions  of  prevailing 
beliefs  long  for  the  shrewd  thrusts,  the  flashing  scorn,  the 
relentless  fire,  the  downright  grapples  with  which  the 
hated  Voltaire  pushed  on  his  work  of  “  crushing  the 
infamous.”  The  battle  was  demoralized  by  its  virulence. 
True  ;  but  is  this  worse  than  to  have  it  demoralized  by 
cowardice  of  heart  and  understanding,  when  each  con¬ 
troversial  man-at-arms  is  eager  to  have  it  thought  that  he 
wears  the  colours  of  the  other  side,  when  the  theologian 
would  fain  pass  for  rationalist,  and  the  free-thinker  for  a 
person  with  his  own  orthodoxies,  if  you  only  knew  them, 
and  when  philosophic  candour  and  intelligence  are 
supposed  to  have  hit  their  final  climax  in  the  doctrine  that 
everything  is  both  true  and  false  at  the  same  time  ?  ' 


74 


METABOLISM 


(Voltaire,  p.  9  ;  John  Morley).  Yet  while  all  this  is  true, 
we  cannot,  on  the  other  hand,  fail  to  admire  and  seek  to 
encourage  every  attempt  to  adjust  and  harmonize  the 
truths  of  science  and  revelation,  the  facts  of  life  and 
consciousness,  and  thus  meet  the  claims  of  both 
intellect  and  heart, 

That  mind  and  soul,  according  well, 

May  make  one  music  as  before. 

But  vaster. 

Where  there  is  life  in  full  force  and  flow,  it  must  seek 
and  find  the  newest  and  most  effective  modes  of  expres¬ 
sion.  The  first  grand  necessity  would  seem  to  be  the 
standing  in  with  loving  loyalty  to  all  one’s  relations,  in 
a  spirit  of  self-effacing  service  for  others.  For  the  rest, 
life  may  be  allowed  to  assume  its  own  forms  of  embodi¬ 
ment,  act  out  its  own  generous  impulses,  and  make 
its  own  contribution,  in  its  own  way,  to  the  general  weal. 
The  spirit  of  life  is  the  spirit  of  love.  Life  and  love  are, 
in  their  nature,  essentially  one  and  the  same.  They 
both  find  their  unity  in  Him  whom  we  call  God.  They 
both  stream  out  from  His  infinite  heart  and  break  up 
into  infinite  richness  of  variety  in  expression.  They 
both  have  infinite  capacity  for  ingenious  device  in  the 
way  of  helpful  and  healing  ministry.  Both  have  endless 
powers  of  adaptation,  patient  persistence,  unwearying 
search,  and  unquenchable  hope.  Neither  life  nor  love 
can  ever  be  stereotyped  ;  they  cannot  be  restricted  or 
prescribed.  Bonds  and  imprisonment  they  laugh  to 
scorn.  Born  of  the  Spirit,  they  are  free  as  air.  Unfettered 
as  the  wind,  they  flow  where  they  fist.  They  are  never 
baffled  or  baulked.  If  one  approach  be  blocked  to  them 


METABOLISM 


75 


they  try  another,  and  yet  another,  till  they  win  through 
and  prevail ;  for  in  the  long  run  neither  life  nor  love  can 
ever  fail.  It  is  the  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  narrow 
dogmatism  to  imprison  the  free  spirit  of  life  within  certain 
fixed  formulae  that  has  so  often  driven  good  men  into 
open  revolt.  Through  confounding  form  with  spirit, 
and  identifying  organism  with  life,  the  Church  has  often 
been  guilty  of  repudiating  her  own  most  promising 
children.  She  has  driven  them  into  the  wilderness  to 
seek  the  freedom  denied  them  at  home.  Life,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  for  ever  breaking  down  and  rebuilding  structure, 
for  it  must  needs  employ  some  form  of  embodiment  in 
which  to  exhibit  its  powers,  and  through  which  to  per¬ 
petuate  its  kind.  The  mode  of  this  embodiment  may, 
and  often  must,  change  with  the  changing  conditions 
under  which  it  is  called  to  function. 

As  soon  as  any  form  ceases  to  be  of  service  to  life  it 
must  needs  be  shed  in  favour  of  one  that  will  lend  itself 
to  the  furtherance  of  life’s  ends.  For  life  to  find  itself 
‘  bricked  in/  so  to  speak,  by  the  very  structure  it  has 
reared  for  the  purpose  of  self-dissemination  becomes  a 
tragedy.  It  is  true  that  Paul  enjoins  us  to  ‘  hold  fast 
the  form  of  sound  words/  but  it  is  to  be  held  ‘  in  faith 
and  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus/  This  provision  secures 
it  from  contracting  into  narrowness  or  drying  up  into 
sterility.  A  ‘  form  ’  that  is  in  vital  relation,  through 
faith  and  love,  with  the  Lord  of  all  life  and  love,  will  be 
free  and  flexible,  because  it  will  itself  be  alive.  The 
very  phrase  ‘  sound  words  *  has  a  biological  significance. 
It  is  a  metaphor  borrowed  by  St.  Paul  from  medical 
science.  It  means  ‘  in  good  health/  But  a  thing  that  is 


76 


METABOLISM 


in  good  health  must  be  alive,  and  this  idea  of  livingness, 
in  the  words  that  gather  up  and  express  the  faith,  is  their 
safeguard  from  inelasticity.  They  will  share  the  qualities 
of  the  life  they  are  employed  to  express  because,  in  truth, 
it  is  through  them  alone  that  the  life  can  be  reproduced, 
for  ‘  The  seed  is  the  word/  ‘  The  words  that  I  speak 
unto  you/  said  Christ,  ‘  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life  ’  ; 
so  that  here  emerges  the  supreme  truth  that  the  Christian 
faith  has  not  to  do  with  a  dead  creed,  but  with  a  Living 
Person — the  ever-living,  ever-loving  Christ. 

That  the  historic  facts  about  Him  have  to  be  expressed 
in  words  is  one  of  those  necessary  conditions  which  spring 
out  of  our  earthly  limitations,  and  this  at  once  opens 
the  door  to  all  sorts  of  misinterpretation. 

Even  in  the  hands  of  those  who  know  how  to  use  them 
most  wisely  words  are  dangerous  things  to  handle,  and 
often  work  precisely  opposite  results  from  those  which 
they  were  employed  to  effect.  It  is  the  peril  of  all  langu¬ 
age  that  words  after  repeated  use  cease  to  stand  for 
realities  of  thought  and  feeling.  It  is  a  strange  paradox 
that  what  at  one  stage  is  a  necessary  means  of  advance, 
if  too  long  retained  becomes  a  fatal  hindrance  to  develop¬ 
ment  and  must  be  withdrawn.  Browning  employs  this 
well-known  fact  to  account  for  the  cessation  of  miracle  : 

I  cried  once,  ‘  That  ye  may  believe  in  Christ, 

Behold,  this  blind  man  shall  receive  his  sight !  * 

I  cry  now,  *  Urgest  thou  .  .  . 

“  Repeat  that  miracle  and  take  my  faith  ?  ”  ’ 

I  say  that  miracle  was  duly  wrought 
When,  save  for  it,  no  faith  was  possible. 

So  faith  grew,  making  void  more  miracles 
Because  too  much  ;  they  would  compel,  not  help.1 

1  *  A  Death  in  the  Desert.’ 


METABOLISM 


77 


The  very  vitality  of  truth  requires  that  it  should  be 
embodied  in  ever-changing  forms.  Life  is  for  ever 
shedding  outworn  garments.  Its  upward  path  is  strewn 
with  discarded  forms.  But  though  the  forms  perish 
and  pass,  life  holds  on  its  victorious  way.  In  the  life- 
history  of  every  organism  there  is  this  casting  aside  of 
that  which,  because  it  no  longer  helps,  becomes  a  hindrance 
to  its  growth.  In  the  case  of  the  lobster,  the  crayfish, 
and  the  common  crab,  we  have  a  very  fine  and  visible 
illustration  of  this  process.  In  their  case  is  achieved 
suddenly,  and,  so  to  speak,  while  we  wait,  what  is  going 
on  invisibly,  by  insensible  degrees  and  at  different  times, 
in  all  forms  of  life.  In  the  case  of  the  lobster,  for  example, 
he  grows  as  to  his  body,  but  his  shell  is  inelastic  and  gives 
him  no  scope.  He  has,  therefore,  no  hope  even  of  survival, 
to  say  nothing  of  growth  and  development,  excepting  as 
he  can  clear  himself  and  cast  his  shell.  This  is  precisely 
what  he  does,  and  does  so  frequently  that,  according  to 
those  who  have  observed  these  changes,  a  lobster  only  two 
inches  long  has  moulted  ten  times,  and  a  ten-inch  lobster 
has  changed  his  outward  form  no  less  than  twenty-five 
times.  But  through  all  these  changes  the  lobster  himself 
has  not  changed  his  essential  nature,  though  his  form  has 
expanded  and  his  embodiment  has  altered  in  accordance 
with  the  requirements  of  his  growth.  Moreover,  in 
every  case  his  protective  covering  was  secreted  from  within 
and  not  imposed  from  without.  It  was  fife’s  own 
product  for  the  purposes  of  maintenance  and  defence. 
In  like  manner  the  truth,  knowledge  of  which  is  the  life  of 
the  Church,  is  ever  taking  to  itself  fresh  forms  of  expression. 
As  the  thought  of  the  Church  expands,  so  credal  forms 


78 


METABOLISM 


either  have  to  be  discarded  in  favour  of  a  fresh  statement 
of  truth,  or  else  be  historically  interpreted,  with  the  risk 
of  some  essential  element  being  dropped  out.  It 
would  seem  that,  just  as  in  the  case  of  Crustacea,  some 
protecting  covering  is  necessary  even  in  its  most  advanced 
stage  of  development,  lest  it  should  fail  to  function  or 
fall  a  victim  to  predatory  birds  or  fishes,  so  whatever 
stage  of  growth  the  Christian  Church  may  reach,  it 
would  seem  necessary  that  she  should  stand  in  some  sort 
of  organized  life,  and  that  her  evangel  should  embody 
itself  in  some  form  of  words  if  it  is  to  become  reproductive, 
and  pass  from  man  to  man  and  from  mind  to  mind. 
Truth  is  the  same  yesterday  and  to-day  and  for  ever, 
but  the  forms  of  its  embodiment,  the  methods  of  its 
incorporation,  may  change,  and  must  from  time  to  time. 
The  Church’s  love  for  truth  itself,  however,  must  always 
be  greater  than  her  love  for  any  form  of  words  in  which 
it  may  stand  expressed.  Truth  is  coming  in  to-day  as 
never  before  from  all  quarters — from  the  laboratory  of 
the  chemist,  the  observatory  of  the  astronomer,  the 
dissecting-room  of  the  anatomist,  and  sometimes,  let  it 
be  hoped,  from  the  study  of  the  theologian.  But  wherever 
it  comes  from,  as  long  as  it  is  truth,  and  however  much  its 
coming  may  disturb  our  preconceived  notions  or  conflict 
with  our  old-time  theories,  let  it  come,  though  much  that 
we  cherished  may  have  in  consequence  to  go.  For  no 
man  who  loves  father  or  mother,  wife  or  child,  or  even 
his  own  life,  more  than  truth  is  worthy  of  her.  Wherever 
she  may  lead  we  must  follow,  expecting  and  being  willing 
to  bear  reproach  for  her  name.  There  can  be  no  conflict 
between  truths  themselves,  but  only  in  our  imperfect 


METABOLISM 


79 


co-ordination  of  them.  It  has  been  frequently  said  that 
the  study  of  medicine  is  particularly  perilous  to  the 
student,  and  that  young  doctors,  more  than  most,  are 
susceptible  to  agnostic  attacks,  from  which  they  but 
seldom  or  slowly  recover.  In  this  connexion  the  closing 
words  of  one  of  the  greatest  physicians  of  our  time,  as 
he  addressed  his  outgoing  students,  may  form  a  fitting 
close  to  this  chapter.  Professor  A.  R.  Simpson,  M.D., 
D.Sc.,  was  retiring  from  the  Chair  of  Obstetrics  in  the 
University  of  Edinburgh.  That  retirement  coincided 
with  his  handing  to  the  successful  men  their  diplomas  of 
efficiency  as  medical  men.  Taking  a  review  of  the  fifty 
years  which  his  professorship  had  covered,  he  said  : 

‘  Man  is  continually  putting  off  his  mortal  vesture  and 
replacing  it  with  a  better  fitting  garb.  The  seven  pounds 
weight  of  matter  that  was  laid  in  the  infant  balance  passes 
all  away,  every  atom  of  it ;  and  if  he  reach  the  Mosaic 
term  of  three  score  years  and  ten  he  is  told,  though 
he  may  not  have  noticed  it,  that  he  has  ten  times  changed 
the  fabric  of  the  frame  his  spirit  tenants.  If  he  be  wise 
he  will  long  ere  then  have  pondered  how  the  latest  fashion 
of  his  vestment  will  be  put  off — whether  in  one  way  or 
another.  “  Not  that  I  would  be  unclothed/’ 

‘  In  one  way.  One  of  the  heroes  of  my  opening  man¬ 
hood,  one  of  the  most  lovable  of  men,  was  so  great  a 
naturalist  that  when  he  died  in  his  prime  Sydney  Dobell 
wrote  me  a  note,  suggesting  these  four  lines  for  his 
epitaph  : 

He  courted  Nature  for  his  mistress  ;  wooed  her  so 
He  won  her,  till,  by  love  made  bold, 

She  showed  him  more  than  mortal  man  should  know — 
Then  slew  him,  lest  her  secrets  should  be  told. 


8o 


METABOLISM 


'  A  few  hours  before  his  passing  a  friend  came  to  his 
bedside  and  asked  him,  “  How  do  you  feel  now  ?  ”  and 
was  answered,  “  I  feel  just  like  a  creature  carried  down  a 
river.” 

*  In  that  way,  or  in  this  ?  When  I  went  to  practise  in 
Glasgow  the  man  at  the  top  of  the  profession,  though  still 
in  middle  life,  had  resigned  the  Chair  of  the  Practice  of 
Physic  in  the  Andersonian  University,  being  somewhat 
delicate  in  health,  and  had  reached  that  busy  eminence 
where  his  fellow  citizens  could  not  let  their  sick  friends 
die  till  he  had  seen  them,  and  where  his  professional 
brethren  were  not  quite  satisfied  that  medicine  had  done 
its  last  and  best  till  they  had  had  a  consultation  with 
him.  When  Dr.  Andrew  Anderson  was  on  his  deathbed 
one  of  his  fellow  elders  who  was  also  ill  sent  to  inquire  how 
it  fared  with  him.  “  Tell  him,”  said  Dr.  Anderson, 
borrowing  from  Hopeful  in  the  Pilgrim  s  Progress,  “  I’m 
in  the  very  middle  of  the  river,  but  I  feel  the  bottom, 
and  it  is  good.” 

'  It  may  chance  that  some  July  day,  •  far  down  the 
century,  when  I  have  been  long  in  the  ether,  one  or  other 
of  you  will  talk  with  child  or  grandchild  of  the  years 
when  the  century  was  young.  Among  its  unforgotten 
scenes  there  will  rise  before  your  mind  the  memory  of  the 
day  when  at  last  you  burst  the  chrysalis  shell  of  pupilage 
to  lift  free  wings  into  the  azure.  You  will  recall  the 
unusual  concurrence  of  the  simultaneous  leave-taking 
of  the  University  by  the  graduates  and  their  promoter. 
“  We  came  away,”  you  will  say,  f<  a  goodly  company,  all 
together,  through  the  gateway  that  leads  to  the  rosy 
dawn.  He  passed  out,  all  alone,  through  the  door  that 


METABOLISM 


81 


looks  to  the  sunset  and  evening  star.  He  was  an  old 
man,  like  me,”  I  forehear  you  say.  “  Not  a  great  man. 
He  had  been  a  friend  of  great  men,  and  came  out  of  a 
great  time  in  the  nineteenth  century,  ‘  when  there  was 
mid-sea  and  the  mighty  things/  and  it  looked  to  the  men 
of  his  generation  as  if  old  things  had  all  passed  away  and 
a  new  world  begun.  And  he  told  us  that  the  great 
lesson  he  had  learned  on  his  way  through  life  was  the 
same  that  the  disciple  who  leaned  on  Jesus’s  breast  at 
supper  taught  to  the  fathers,  the  young  men,  and  the 
little  children  of  his  time  when  he  said,  ‘  The  world 
passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof,  but  he  that  doeth 
the  will  of  God  abideth  for  ever.’  ”  Farewell/ 


6 


Ill 


DEVELOPMENT 

According  to  Roux  there  are  two  stages  of  development 
in  an  organ,  the  first  covering  the  period  from  generation 
to  a  point  where  it  is  called  into  fulfilment  of  co-operative 
relations  and  functions,  and  the  second  from  thence 
onward. 

Now  this  is  finely  suggestive  of  the  need  which  exists 
for  close  and  reciprocal  action  between  the  different 
members  of  the  Christian  Church,  if  it  is  to  resemble  and 
express  in  any  adequate  way  the  community  idea  for 
which  the  human  body  stands.  The  individual  Christian 
life  can  come  to  only  a  certain  measurable  distance  in 
development,  by  itself.  Under  the  impulse  of  those 
great  laws  of  the  new  inheritance  by  which  it  has  been 
born  again,  it  is  carried  forward  to  a  certain  stage, 
variable  as  to  time  of  course,  in  different  individuals,  but 
without  dependence  upon  any  stimulus  from  association 
with  its  fellows. 

Even  this  individual  unfolding,  however,  would  seem 
to  proceed  under  the  direction  of  a  pre-determining 
purpose,  deeply  inlaid,  a  sort  of  inwritten  prophecy  of  the 
corporate  end  for  which  it  has  been  marked  out,  towards 
which  it  moves,  and  without  which  it  can  never  come  to 
fullest  self-expression.  By  fulfilling  its  relations  to  its 
fellows  and  discharging  the  functional  obligations  which 

82 


DEVELOPMENT 


83 


these  relations  involve — by  subordinating  the  personal  to 
the  corporate  ideal — it  can  alone  make  its  just  contribu¬ 
tion  to  the  general  upkeep  of  the  Body  of  Christ  which  is 
His  Church.  It  is  this  ‘  discerning  of  the  Body/  which, 
as  Paul  points  out,  is  so  fundamental  both  to  individual 
and  corporate  efficiency.  Through  failure  at  this  point 
certain  members  of  the  Corinthian  Church  fell  into 
spiritual  decline,  and  some  were  sleeping  the  sleep  of 
death.  *  For  this  cause  many  among  you  are  weak  and 
sickly,  and  not  a  few  sleep/ 

The  Body  of  Christ  consists  of  many  members,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  be  not  only  co-ordinate  but  co-operant. 
They  must  function,  and  they  must  function  in  concert 
under  one  High  Command.  Only  thus  can  they  reach 
the  finest  results  in  Christian  character,  and  attain  the 
greatest  efficiency  in  Christian  work.  Every  cell  in  the 
human  body  has  first  of  all  a  duty  to  itself  in  the  way  of 
self-maintenance,  by  putting  in  its  claim  for  nutrition. 
But  in  the  second  place  it  has  a  duty  to  its  fellows  in  the 
way  of  mutual  give  and  take.  All  this  means  the 
maintenance  of  a  fine  balance  between  the  fulfilment  of 
personal  and  corporate  relations. 

In  an  article  on  ‘  The  Biological  Problem  of  Cancer/ 
Dr.  J.  A.  Murray,  of  the  Imperial  Cancer  Research  Fund, 
says  :  ‘Two  remarkable  properties  of  the  living  body 
have  been  noted.  First :  the  individual  cells  of  the 
various  tissues  are  not  independent,  self-contained  units, 
each  going  its  own  way.  They  are  subject  to  a  general 
controlling  influence,  the  nature  of  which  is  still  obscure, 
which  limits  their  rate  and  amount  of  growth,  so  that  a 
fairly  uniform  proportion  is  maintained  between  the 


84 


DEVELOPMENT 


different  organs  and  parts  of  the  body.  Proof  is  seen  in 
the  average  size  that  animals  reach,  also  their  various 
organs. 

‘  In  cancer  this  controlling  power  is  wanting,  so  that 
cells  reproduce  at  a  more  rapid  rate.  The  problem  lies 
in  the  discovery  why  the  cells  in  the  cancer  area  are 
started  on  their  altered  tempo  of  growth,  and  why  they 
are  unaffected  by  the  restraining  influence  which  normally 
holds  the  cells  of  the  rest  of  the  body  within  proper  bounds. 
They  have  undergone  a  change  in  becoming  cancerous  by 
which  they  no  longer  respond  to  the  influences  which 
restrain  and  regulate  cell-division  and  growth  in  the 
body.  Whether  this  change  is  a  real  increase  in  the 
energy  with  which  the  cells  take  in  food  and  grow,  so 
that  the  restraining  influence  is  powerless  to  hold  them 
in  check,  or  whether  it  is  a  loss  of  sensitiveness  to  restraint, 
cannot  yet  be  said  with  certainty/1 

Sir  Charles  Sherrington,  in  his  address  before  the 
British  Association,  already  quoted,  says  that  Professor 
Champy  of  Paris  '  describes  how  epithelium,  that  in  the 
body  is  not  growing,  when  it  is  removed  from  the  body 
starts  growing.  If  freed  from  all  fibrous  tissue  its  cells 
not  only  germinate,  but,  as  they  do  so,  lose  their  adult 
specialization/  If,  however,  the  epithelium  cultivated 
outside  the  body  is  kept  in  touch  with  its  connective 
tissue,  then  both  grow  and  retain  their  specialization. 
From  this  Sherrington  concludes  ‘  the  evidence  seems  to 
show  that  the  mutual  touch  between  the  general  cells  of 
the  body  is  decisive  of  much  in  their  individual  shaping 
and  destiny/  Through  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  Heaton  of 

1  Discovery ,  March  number,  vol.  i.,  p.  71. 


DEVELOPMENT 


85 


Oxford,  I  have  been  permitted  to  see  the  results  of  these 
experiments  of  tissue-growing  in  nutrient  media,  at 
various  stages  of  its  growth.  These  results  are  full  of 
suggestiveness  in  this  connexion  as  to  the  control  that 
is  requisite  in  the  growth  and  development  of  the  Christian 
Church.  For  example,  if  a  portion  of  any  organ  of  the 
body,  say  a  piece  of  a  kidney,  be  removed  from  its  con¬ 
nective  tissue  and  placed  in  a  test-tube  with  a  nutrient 
medium  it  will  immediately  commence  growing.  While  in 
the  body  its  growth  was  regulated  because  it  was  under 
supervision  and  thus  kept  within  limitations.  When 
thus  started  on  its  own,  however,  and  unchecked  by  the 
restraining  hand  of  the  central  control,  it  at  once  begins 
to  increase  in  size.  As  it  grows,  however,  it  changes  its 
specific  nature,  becoming  quite  featureless  so  that  it  is 
*  kidney  '  no  longer.  As  a  result  of  dissociation  it  has 
degenerated  into  unspecialized  tissue  and  lost  its  dis¬ 
tinctive  kidney  quality  ;  maintenance  of  which  depends 
absolutely  on  its  continuance  in  corporate  fellowship. 
So  with  the  individual  member  of  Christ’s  Church  who 
deliberately  falls  out  of  communion  with  the  spiritual 
body  to  which  he  belongs.  The  attempt  to  live  in 
isolation  results  not  only  in  unregulated  development, 
but  in  degeneration  of  the  specialized  function  which  he 
was  divinely  ordained  to  discharge.  Just  as  the  cells 
of  the  individual  body  then  are  regulated,  as  Murray 
indicates  by  some  governing  principle  which  makes 
for  balance  and  symmetry,  and,  according  to  Sher¬ 
rington,  depend  upon  ‘  mutual  touch '  for  becoming 
and  achieving  their  best,  so  with  the  units  which 
constitute  the  membership  of  the  Church.  They, 


86 


DEVELOPMENT 


too,  can  find  their  fullness  of  life  and  service  only  in 
association,  under  central  supervision  and  control.  Nor 
is  this  all ;  there  alone  can  they  be  safeguarded  from  the 
peril  of  overestimating  both  themselves  and  their  abilities. 
The  idea  of  proportion  must  be  maintained.  As  in  the 
case  of  individual  life,  so  in  the  case  of  corporate  life, 
balance  is  of  supreme  importance,  and  where  this  require¬ 
ment  is  not  met,  time  and  strength  are  consumed  in 
checking  preponderances,  and  thus  force  is  lost  to  the 
working  value  of  the  combine. 

A  refractory  horse  in  a  four-in-hand  not  only  fails  to 
contribute  his  due  share  to  the  draught  of  the  coach, 
he  subtracts  from  the  efficiency  of  the  other  three  by 
breaking  up  the  unity  of  the  team,  so  that,  instead  of  the 
whole  force  of  the  combination  going  into  the  traces,  part 
of  it  is  expended  in  keeping  the  objector  up  to  his  job. 

This  law  of  proportion  in  distribution  is  the  all¬ 
controlling  condition  of  well-being  and  well-doing  in  all 
the  kingdoms  of  life.  So  dependent  upon  this  law  is  our 
physical  health,  that  the  chemistry  of  the  body  cannot 
diminish  or  increase  the  production  of  any  required 
secretion  beyond  a  certain  point  without  disturbing  the 
balance  of  forces  and  introducing  an  element  of  discord, 
which  in  this  connexion  spells  disease.  Hence  Paul’s 
warning  note  against  over-individualism :  ‘For  I  say 
through  the  grace  given  unto  me  to  every  man  that  is 
among  you,  not  to  think  more  highly  of  himself  than  he 
ought  to  think,  but  to  think  soberly,  according  as  God 
hath  dealt  to  every  man  the  measure  of  faith.’ 

The  great  twofold  necessity  is,  first,  to  find  our  place, 
and  secondly  to  fill  it.  Now  to  find  our  place  we  must 


DEVELOPMENT 


87 


follow  our  aptitude.  There  is  always  one  thing  that  we 
can  do  better  than  any  other.  It  is  a  fairly  safe  and 
sound  working  principle  upon  which  to  proceed,  that 
what  we  can  do  with  the  least  amount  of  friction  and 
waste  is  that  for  which  we  are  responsible.  It  is  our 
particular  piece  of  work.  This  is  the  thing  that  calls, 
and  its  call  is  our  *  calling.’  We  shall  not  merely  do  it 
best  and  with  the  greatest  satisfaction  because  it  fits  in 
with  our  particular  genius,  but  it  will  prove  the  most 
valuable  contribution  that  we  can  make  to  the  common 
cause ;  for  under  the  supreme  directorship  of  the  controlling 
will  of  Christ  it  will  be  timed  and  placed  both  when  and 
where  it  will  count  the  most.  This  gives  a  distinction 
to  every  worker,  however  obscure,  and  a  distinctiveness 
to  his  work,  however  apparently  trivial,  from  which 
nothing  can  detract.  Such  a  view  of  our  life-work 
redeems  the  commonest  task  from  vulgarity,  and  stamps 
the  homeliest  labour  with  dignity  and  worth.  For  the 
most  part  we  shall  find  our  sphere  at  hand,  and,  even 
should  it  be  distant,  our  progress  toward  it  will  have  to 
be  made  through  the  faithful  discharge  of  duties  which 
lie  at  our  feet.  Instead,  therefore,  of  striving  after  some 
out-of-the-way  and  fancy  achievement,  let  us  do  the 
thing  that  stands  next  us.  There  is  a  common  defect 
in  human  vision  which  goes  by  the  technical  term  of 
hypermetropia.  It  is  a  structural  defect  of  the  eye, 
the  sufferer  from  which  is  unable  to  see  things  clearly 
when  they  are  near  at  hand.  This  defect  would  seem  to 
have  its  analogue  in  spiritual  vision.  Our  eyes  are  often 
ranged  for  distant  fields  whose  beckoning  hands  are  visible 
to  us,  while  opportunities  for  near  and  immediate  service 


88 


DEVELOPMENT 


either  fall  outside  the  picture  altogether,  or  are  seen  so 
out  of  focus  that  they  are  blurred  in  fog. 

The  old  conception  that  a  thing  must  be  the  will  of 
God  for  us,  so  long  as  it  violated  every  natural  wish, 
and  outraged  every  pre-disposition  of  our  nature,  was  a 
slander  on  the  loving  Father  of  our  spirits,  a  wicked 
indictment  of  His  wisdom  and  love.  Christ  declared 
His  yoke  to  be  easy  and  His  burden  light ;  and  if  this 
means  anything,  it  means  that  our  nature,  as  a  whole, 
really  finds  the  line  of  least  resistance  in  its  full  acceptance 
of,  and  concurrence  in,  the  will  of  the  Divine.  To  find 
that  will,  and  work  with  it  heartily  and  enthusiastically, 
is  not  only  to  be  filled  with  joy  unspeakable  ourselves, 
but  to  broadcast  it  among  all  we  meet. 

Christianity,  then,  is  distinctly  social.  The  spiritual 
life  is  a  related  life  and  cannot  be  sustained  in  isolation. 
Fellowship  both  expresses  and  promotes  the  organic 
unity  of  the  Church.  It  is  in  the  fulfilment  of  these 
fraternal  relations  that  the  grace  of  sympathy  can  alone 
be  touched  to  its  finest  issues.  In  the  case  of  the  human 
body  it  is  a  well-established  fact  that  all  its  members  run 
up  and  find  their  keyboard  in  the  brain.  The  localization 
of  function  is  a  recognized  truth.  The  relation  of  limbs 
and  organs  to  one  another  is  not  direct  but  mediate. 
The  connexion,  say  between  the  right  hand  and  the  left, 
is  established  through  the  central  nervous  system,  and 
the  falling  out  of  either  with  head  quarters  means  the 
falling  out  with  his  fellow.  In  the  event  of  perfectly 
established  and  harmonious  relations  between  the  centres 
and  all  the  members,  there  is  perfect  unanimity  and 
reciprocity  between  the  members  themselves.  It  is  the 


DEVELOPMENT 


89 


guarantee  of  mutual  help  and  sympathy.  For  example, 
let  a  speck  of  dust  enter  the  eye  and  at  once  the  hand 
flies  up  to  minister.  Let  a  man  slip  in  the  street  and 
sprain  his  foot,  and  the  other  foot  will  do  double  duty  all 
the  way  home.  But  all  this  fine  fellowship  and  fealty 
springs  out  of  perfectly  sustained  relations  with  the  head. 
In  like  manner,  when  the  hearts  of  men  are  right  with  God, 
when  we  are  all  standing  in  loyally  to  our  relations  with 
Jesus  Christ  our  Spiritual  Head,  we  are  in  kindly  love 
and  fellowship  with  one  another.  Then  if  one  does 
happen  to  slip  and  fall,  the  others  do  not  draw  off  in 
proud  and  self-righteous  isolation,  but  they  run  in  with 
a  beautiful  and  helpful  sympathy,  ‘considering  themselves 
lest  they  also  be  tempted  '  ;  while  on  the  other  hand  let 
one  be  advantaged  in  any  way,  and  the  others  are  not 
jealous  and  resentful  at  his  promotion  but  are  rejoiceful 
in  his  joy.  Thus,  as  we  have  said,  each  is  for  the  other 
and  all  are  for  God. 

The  hand  of  the  working  man  toils  for  the  food  in 
which  his  whole  body  shares  and  not  his  hand  alone. 
That  is  its  contribution  to  the  common  store  which  is 
distributed  for  the  general  good.  What  is  true  of  the 
hand  is  true  of  every  other  bodily  function.  Each  has 
its  own  contribution  to  make,  and  its  participation  in  the 
profits  will  be  graduated  to  the  loyalty  with  which  its 
obligations  are  discharged.  Were  any  power  to  go  out 
on  strike  because  of  having  thus  to  contribute  to  the 
good  of  the  community,  such  disloyalty  would  straight¬ 
way  react  upon  the  power  itself.  Under-functioning 
of  any  faculty  results  in  the  withholding  from  it  of 
nourishment,  for  even  here  the  principle  holds  good  ‘  he 


9o 


DEVELOPMENT 


that  will  not  work  neither  shall  he  eat.’  In  order  to 
get  a  harmonious  and  well-balanced  life  there  must  be  a 
spirit  of  self-subordination  to  the  corporate  good  on  the 
part  of  every  one  of  the  millions  of  cell-units  which  go  to 
make  up  the  structure  of  a  single  body-form.  That  all 
this  self-subordination  and  co-ordination  is  as  unconscious 
as  it  is  compulsory  in  no  way  detracts  from  either  its 
beauty  or  its  utility.  Obedience  to  this  law  may  be 
blind,  it  may  be  necessitated,  but  all  we  are  concerned 
with  just  now  is  that  it  exists.  That  the  necessity  is 
grounded  in  the  ethical  character  of  God,  that  there  is  a 
cosmic  imperative  that  runs  through  all  life  in  all  worlds, 
conscripting  it  for  mutual  service  may  very  well  be,  but 
we  are  not  yet  ready  for  its  consideration. 

Sir  Charles  Sherrington  gives  a  wonderful  illustration 
of  what  might  be  called  the  solicitude  of  a  nerve  for  the 
muscle  or  skin  which  it  functions,  and  from  which  it  has 
been  severed  by  a  wound.  These  are  his  words  :  *  The 
fibres  of  nerve-trunks  are,  perhaps,  of  all  nerve-structures 
those  that  are  best  known.  They  constitute,  for  example, 
the  motor  nerves  of  muscle  and  the  sensory  nerves  of 
the  skin.  They  establish  their  ties  with  muscle  and 
skin  during  embryonic  life,  and  maintain  them  practically 
unaltered  throughout  the  individual's  existence,  growing 
no  further.  If  severed,  say,  by  a  wound,  they  die  for 
their  whole  length  between  the  point  of  severance  and  the 
muscle  or  skin  they  go  to.  Then  at  once  the  cut  ends 
of  the  nerve-fibres  start  re-growing  from  the  point  of 
severance,  although  for  years  they  have  given  no  sign  of 
growth.  The  fibre,  so  to  say,  tries  to  grow  out  to  reach 
to  its  own  far  distant  muscle.  There  are  difficulties  in 


DEVELOPMENT 


9i 


its  way.  A  multitude  of  non-nervous  repair  cells,  growing 
in  the  wound,  spin  scar-tissue  across  the  new  fibre’s  path. 
Between  these  other  cells  the  new  nerve-fibre  threads  a 
tortuous  way,  avoiding  and  never  joining  any  of  them. 
This  obstruction  it  may  take  days  to  traverse.  Then  it 
reaches  a  region  where  the  old  dead  nerve-fibres  he 
altered  beyond  ordinary  recognition.  But  the  growing 
fibre  recognizes  them.  It  joins  them,  and,  tunnelling 
through  endless  chains  of  them,  arrives  finally,  after 
weeks  or  months,  at  the  wasted  muscle-fibres  which  seem 
to  have  been  its  goal,  for  it  connects  with  them  at  once. 
It  pierces  their  covering  membranes  and  re-forms  with 
their  substance  functions  of  characteristic  pattern  resem¬ 
bling  the  original  that  had  died  weeks  or  months  before. 
Then  its  growth  ceases  as  abruptly  as  it  began,  the  wasted 
muscle  recovers,  and  the  lost  function  is  restored.' 
Now  this  beneficent  seeking  until  it  finds  the  lost,  on  the 
part  of  the  nerve-fibre,  finely  illustrates  and  enforces  the 
necessity  on  the  part  of  the  body-corporate,  which  is  the 
Church,  to  seek  till  it  overtakes  those  who  have  been 
severed  from  its  communion.  What  the  nerve-fibre  does 
blindly  we  are  called  upon  to  do  intelligently,  and  with  a 
love  that  no  coldness  can  chill,  no  difficulty  discourage, 
no  opposition  break  down.  Just  as  there  can  be  no  rest 
for  the  seeking  nerve  till  it  finds  its  estranged  muscle  and 
sets  up  old-time  relations  with  it  to  the  intent  that  it 
may  be  saved,  so  there  must  be  no  rest  for  the  members 
of  the  Body  of  Christ  till  they  are  in  vital  touch  and  loving 
association  with  each  other  through  Him  who  is  their 
Head,  and  under  whose  inspiration  they  are  to  be  for  ever 
seeking  that  they  may  save.  The  Church  probably  loses 


92 


DEVELOPMENT 


more  members  through  leakage  and  breakage  resulting 
from  her  want  of  sensitiveness  to  loss  than  from  any  other 
cause.  She  seems  to  lose  interest  in  souls  that  have  once 
joined  her  ranks,  and  allows  them  to  fall  out  with  careless 
unconcern.  Her  zeal  to  make  new  converts  is  often  in 
strange  contrast  with  her  treatment  of  those  she  already 
has  in  hand.  No  folly,  or  indeed  insincerity,  can  be 
greater  than  that  which  fiercely  engages  in  a  campaign 
against  the  Kingdom  of  darkness  abroad  while  it  views 
with  indifference  the  disintegration  of  its  forces  at  home, 
and  stretches  out  no  hand  to  save. 


IV 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 

It  would  take  us  too  far  afield  to  follow  the  long 
succession  of  steps  through  which  biology  has  traced  the 
progressive  differentiation  of  functions  as  life  has  moved 
from  its  simplest  to  its  most  complex  forms.  Thomson 
tells  us  in  his  Gifford  Lecture  that  ‘  Differentiation  may 
be  compared  to  the  extension  of  an  empire,  and  to  the 
complex  division  of  labour  that  is  established  in  different 
parts  of  its  integration  and  the  binding  of  the  whole  into 
harmonious  federation  and  unified  control.’1  Keith  has 
elaborated  this  idea  in  his  Royal  Institution  Lectures* 
The  passage  is  somewhat  lengthy,  but  is  well  worth 
quoting.  ‘  The  high  degree  of  specialization  seen  in  modern 
machines  has  been  rendered  possible  by  inventors  who 
discovered  methods  of  improving  communication.  A 
modern  nation  could  not  move  as  a  machine  if  it  were 
deprived  of  its  roads,  its  railways,  its  steamers,  and  its 
cable,  telegraph,  and  telephone  systems.  In  recent 
centuries  one  improvement  followed  fast  upon  another, 
each  serving  to  fink  the  individuals  of  a  nation  more  closely 
together,  so  that  they  could  act  as  a  single  machine.  In 
early  days  paths  beaten  by  the  feet  of  British  natives  had 

1  The  System  of  Animate  Nature,  p.  396. 

%The  Engines  of  the  Human  Body ,  pp.  265-6. 

93 


94 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


to  serve  the  tribal  messenger ;  roads  and  mail-coaches  came 
in  due  season ;  railways  and  telegraphs  followed,  and  quite 
recently  appeared  the  all-pervading  ramification  of  the 
telephone  system.  We  have  seen  that  the  human  machine 
has  passed  through  corresponding  phases,  from  the  slow 
postal  traffic  carried  in  the  blood  circulation  to  that 
triumph  of  rapid  communication — the  nerve  system. 
There  is  one  striking  difference,  however,  in  the  organiza¬ 
tion  of  a  national  machine  and  a  human  machine.  The 
government  officials  of  a  nation,  as  well  as  plain  citizens, 
use  freely  both  telephone  and  telegraph  systems  in 
carrying  out  their  duties.  But  in  the  human  body  the 
whole  system  of  rapid  communication  has  been  made 
a  government  monopoly.  All  its  telephone  exchanges 
are  manned  by  government  officials.  The  humble  units 
which  carry  on  the  productive  industries  of  the  body  may 
dispatch  messages  which  are  intended  for  another  set  of 
workers,  but  these  messages  have  to  be  submitted  to  the 
central  government  and  duly  approved  or  censored  before 
they  are  passed  on  to  their  destination.  If  the  transport 
units  which  conduct  the  alimentary  traffic  go  on  strike 
and  wish  to  call  out  the  units  which  prepare  the  supply 
of  fuel  for  the  body,  they  cannot  send  their  message 
direct :  it  has  to  pass  through  the  government  telephone 
exchanges.  To  modern  minds  it  may  seem  that  the 
administrative  units  take  an  unfair  advantage  of  the 
monopoly  controlled  by  them.  Nothing  can  happen  in 
the  commonwealth  of  the  body  without  it  coming  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  central  administration.  And  yet  the 
population  of  living  units  included  within  the  human 
body  far  exceeds  in  numbers  the  total  population  of  the 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


95 


earth.  And  they  are  ruled  with  unmatched  ability.  Is 
the  administrative  system  of  the  human  machine  the 
ideal  towards  which  the  modern  national  machine  is 
tending  ?  There  are  signs  that  this  is  the  case/ 

Now  the  Church  which  is  the  Body  of  Christ  has  fol¬ 
lowed  this  analogy.  It  has  complexified  its  organization 
as  occasion  required.  Beginning  in  a  very  simple  way, 
it  gradually  developed  function  after  function,  till  when 
Paul  wrote  his  letter  to  the  Romans,  it  already  pre¬ 
sented  the  great  apostle  with  the  picture  of  a  very 
complex  community,  as  yet,  however,  but  indifferently 
co-ordinated,  and  calling  for  beseeching  entreaty.1 

In  speaking  of  ‘  Progressive  Differentiations  and  In¬ 
tegrations  ’  Thomson  says,  ‘  As  we  ascend  the  series  we 
see  organ  added  to  organ  in  a  way  that  suggests  inex¬ 
haustible  resources/  *  Now  this  same  impression  of 
inexhaustible  ‘  resources  ’  being  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Church  in  the  differentiation  of  its  spiritual  functions, 
seems  to  have  been  present  to  Paul’s  mind.  It  comes  to 
expression  in  two  finely  complementary  passages,  one 
from  Eph.  iv.  7,  ‘  Unto  each  one  of  us  was  the  grace 
given  according  to  the  measure  of  the  gift  of  Christ  ’  ;  the 
other  from  Rom.  xii.  6,  ‘  Having  then  gifts  differing, 
according  to  the  grace  that  is  given  to  us.’  In  the  first  of 
these  we  have  force  graduated  to  faculty,  in  the  second, 
faculty  graduated  to  force.  Before  we  proceed  to  elab¬ 
orate  the  differentiation  of  function  as  catalogued  by  the 
apostle  in  Rom.  xii.,  let  us  ‘  compare  spiritual  things 
with  spiritual,’  and  see  how  these  two  great  passages  play 
into  one  another’s  hands.  We  cannot  understand  the 


1  Rom.  xii.  i. 


2  The  System  of  Animate  Nature,  p.  392. 


96  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


full  force  of  either  of  them,  unless  we  remember  that  the 
key-note  of  all  the  apostle’s  thinking  is  service,  constant 
unremitting  service.  To  this  all  his  mighty  arguments 
are  made  to  bend,  and  to  this  every  Christian  disciple 
without  exception  is  called.  Discipleship  must  pass  into 
apostleship  or  renounce  its  claims.  Each  individual 
follower  of  Christ  is  under  the  obligation  to  contribute 
to  the  maintenance  and  extension  of  the  body-corporate, 
which  is  the  Church.  To  make  the  Church  co-extensive  with 
the  world,  to  make  the  kingdom  of  God  inclusive  of  all  the 
kingdoms  of  man,  this  is  the  patriotism  of  the  new  kingdom 
with  which  every  true  soldier  of  the  Cross  must  be  fired. 
Whom  He  thus  calls  to  service  Christ  likewise  qualifies, 
so  that  with  the  gift  of  eternal  fife  are  bestowed  corre¬ 
sponding  gifts  through  which  that  life  may  express 
itself  in  terms  of  work.  Hence  it  is  written,  ‘And  He 
gave  some  to  be  apostles,  and  some  prophets,  and  some 
evangelists,  and  some  pastors  and  teachers,  for  the  per¬ 
fecting  of  the  saints  unto  the  work  of  ministering,  unto 
the  building  up  of  the  body  of  Christ.’  The  nature  of  our 
individual  contribution  will  depend  upon  the  special  gift 
or  qualification  we  personally  possess  ;  and  its  extent 
will  be  measured  by  the  force  and  flow  of  spiritual  energy 
which  is  permitted  to  find  expression  in  our  lives.  This 
spiritual  energy  is  here  covered  by  the  word  ‘  grace,’  a 
rather  spacious  and  elastic  term  as  used  by  Paul,  and 
requiring  always  to  be  construed  through  its  setting. 

*  Grace  ’  and  ‘  Gift  '  must  be  regarded  here  as  standing 
in  the  relation  to  each  other  of  vital  force  and  vital  faculty. 
It  is  only  as  they  are  related  that  either  can  be  of  service. 
Force  without  faculty  would  be  as  futile  as  faculty  without 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


97 


force.  Of  what  possible  utility  would  it  be  to  collect  and 
store  electrical  energy  at  a  power  station  were  there  no 
means  of  expending  it  in  light  and  heat  and  motion  ? 
On  the  other  hand,  what  use  would  be  the  thousands  of 
feet  of  insulated  installation,  or  the  million  vacuum 
globes  throughout  the  city,  were  there  no  available  energy 
when  the  switches  were  turned  ?  Or  to  put  it  another 
way  :  A  man’s  working  value  to  the  community  depends, 
not  merely  upon  the  fineness  of  his  faculties,  whether 
bodily  or  mental,  but  upon  the  amount  of  physical  energy 
which  he  has  stored,  and  upon  which  his  faculties  can 
draw  without  depleting  the  supply.  Similarly  a  man’s 
service  to  the  spiritual  community  will  turn,  not  merely 
on  the  faculties  he  possesses  but  on  the  forces  of  the  new 
life  of  which  he  has  been  made  the  recipient.  These 
forces  must  be  in  perpetual  flow  through  the  faculties 
if  the  latter  are  to  be  kept  up  to  the  highest  point  of 
efficiency.  Unless  the  grace  be  thus  drawn  upon  by  the 
gift,  it  will  be  a  pent-up,  useless,  and  therefore  finally 
confiscated  force  ;  while  the  gift  itself  will  be  dormant 
and  defective,  dying  down  into  the  doom  of  extirpation 
through  disuse.  We  know  how  manifestly  this  principle 
declares  itself  in  daily  life  and  work.  Let  vitality  get  low 
through  neglect  or  abuse,  and  it  matters  not  how  splendid 
the  gifts  with  which  a  man  is  endowed,  they  will  lose 
their  brilliance  and  be  starved  into  inefficiency.  The 
brain-worker,  through  diminished  quantity  or  quality  of 
blood,  finds  his  thinking  power  impaired ;  and  the  self¬ 
same  cause  will  reduce  the  skill  of  the  craftsman  at  his 
bench,  the  quickness  of  the  clerk  at  his  desk,  the  grasp  of 
the  statesman  in  the  Cabinet,  and  even  the  courage  and 
7 


98  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


resourcefulness  of  the  soldier  on  the  field.  In  like  manner 
the  gifts  that  accompany  the  grace  of  salvation  will 
depend  for  their  successful  functioning  on  the  continuous 
upkeep  of  that  spiritual  and  spiritualizing  force  which 
streams  from  the  life  of  the  Risen  Lord,  to  empower  even 
the  least  of  the  little  ones  that  believe  in  Him.  What  the 
blood  is  to  the  functions  of  body  and  brain,  that  grace  is 
to  the  gifts  of  the  new-born  soul.  For  the  blood  is  the  fife. 
Grace  both  feeds  and  functions  the  gifts.  It  supplies  at 
once  both  driving  and  directing  power,  so  that  the  gift 
may  both  find  and  work  its  fitting  field.  We  are  called 
to  work.  Whatever  shirkers  may  be  tolerated  in  the 
Kingdom  of  man  there  is  no  admittance  except  on 
business  to  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Service  is  the  law  of 
the  universe,  and  the  person  or  thing  that  does  not  serve 
actively  is  made  to  serve  passively.  Everything  pro¬ 
claims  this  law.  Everything  inanimate,  from  the  motes 
that  swing  in  the  beams  of  a  summer’s  noon  to  the  stars 
that  muster  in  millions  on  the  field  of  night ;  and  every¬ 
thing  animate  from  the  tiny  infusoria  that  live  but  a  day 
to  the  first-born  seraph  before  the  throne.  Here  is  a 
cosmic  conscription,  embracing  all  in  its  compulsion  to 
serve. 

Even  the  Highest  life  of  all  is  not  exempt  from  service. 
— *  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,’  said  Christ,  *  and  I 
work,  for  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto 
but  to  minister.’  Here,  then,  is  the  end  to  which  all 
life  with  more  or  less  acquiescence  is  being  steadily 
drawn.  Wherever  the  gift  of  eternal  life  is  received  it 
will  be  found  to  include  certain  provisions  whereby  its 
recipient  is  empowered  not  oniv  to  contribute  his  quota 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


99 


to  the  consolidation  of  the  New  Kingdom,  but  to  increase 
the  number  of  its  subjects.  Indeed  this  is  the  condition 
on  which  we  retain  our  citizenship.  For  this  have  we 
each  been  commissioned  and  empowered  with  gifts 
differing  according  to  the  class  of  work  to  which  we  are 
severally  called.  We  have  been  saved  to  serve.  Only 
as  we  live  to  serve  do  we  deserve  to  live.  There  is 
absolutely  no  limit  to  the  power  we  may  have,  if  the  end 
to  which  we  use  it  be  the  service  of  our  fellow  men.  ‘  All 
power  is  given  unto  Me  in  heaven  and  in  earth ;  go  ye 
therefore,’  said  Christ.  The  power  to  go  waits  on  the 
willingness  to  go.  The  implication  is  that  the 
propagandist  of  the  new  order  is  not  responsible  for  the 
force,  but  only  for  fidelity  in  its  use.  Here  a  most 
important  truth  emerges,  but  upon  which  we  may  only 
touch,  and  that  is  the  Peril  of  Power.  This  peril  seems 
inseparable  from  its  use,  in  whatsoever  form  it  may  be 
manifested.  It  is  the  peril  of  either  misuse  or  misdirec¬ 
tion  ;  and  the  greater  the  power,  of  course,  the  greater 
the  peril  lest  it  should  get  out  of  hand.  Look  again  at 
the  power  of  electricity.  If  you  simply  generate  sufficient 
force  to  tinkle  a  door  bell,  you  may  conduct  it  by  means 
of  a  naked  wire  and  run  no  risk.  But  should  you  require 
enough  power  to  drive  an  engine,  or  to  light  a  town,  then 
you  must  have  it  safeguarded  up  to  the  most  complete 
insulation  before  you  dare  handle  it  at  all.  The  protec¬ 
tive  measures,  that  is  to  say,  must  be  proportioned  to 
the  risk  incurred.  Now  spiritual  power  has  its  risks,  and* 
as  I  interpret  this  verse,  it  carries  an  assurance  against 
these  risks,  and  the  assurance  lies  in  the  fact  herein 
declared,  that  grace  will  be  given  '  according  to  the 


100 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


measure  of  the  gift/  Only  in  the  co-ordination  of  grace 
and  gifts  can  we  find  the  way  of  maximum  service  with 
minimum  risk.  Let  none  of  us  regard  our  gift  in  any 
other  light  than  that  of  a  trust,  for  the  faithful  administra¬ 
tion  of  which  we  shall  be  held  accountable  as  the  stewards 
of  the  grace  of  God.  We  are  called  to  service,  called  to 
the  exercise  of  the  noblest  powers  of  the  soul  in  the 
service  of  our  King.  Let  us  have  no  confidence  in  our 
gifts  apart  from  the  Giver.  The  more  capable  we  are, 
the  greater  is  the  danger  of  misdirection,  and  the  less 
are  we  disposed  to  look  above  and  beyond  for  guidance 
and  control.  Even  when  the  possessor  of  power 
himself  escapes  the  peril  of  self-confidence,  there  is  the 
danger  lest  others  should  trust  in  his  merely  human 
brain  for  wisdom,  and  in  his  merely  human  arm  for 
strength.  May  this  not  be  the  reason  why,  just  when  we 
seem  to  need  them  most,  the  great  and  wise  are  often 
taken  from  our  midst  ?  If  we  can  only  be  thrown  back 
from  trust  in  great  men  to  a  greater  confidence  in  the 
God  of  great  men,  we  shall  prove  that  though  the  captains 
and  the  kings  depart,  ‘  the  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  us  and 
the  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge/ 

Now  this  general  principle  of  relatedness  between 
force  and  faculty  which  is  laid  down  in  the  letter  to  the 
Ephesians  is  shown  in  the  letter  to  the  Romans  in  its 
practical  application  on  the  field  of  spiritual  work.  This 
is  ever  Paul’s  method.  He  must  show  the  working  value 
of  things.  He  can  never  leave  them  at  a  loose  end.  The 
practical  utility  of  any  principle  he  might  lay  down,  or 
of  any  doctrine  he  might  teach,  was  to  him  if  not  its  sole, 
yet  its  all-sufficient  vindication.  In  order  to  satisfy 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


IOI 


Paul’s  mind  the  thing  must  work.  Force  must  come  to 
expression  through  faculty  to  accredit  itself  ;  and  faculty 
must  draw  on  force  or  be  starved  into  impotence.  In 
this  great  chapter  the  consecration  enjoined  in  the  first 
verse  is  being  urged  upon  a  people  already  possessed  of 
a  Christian  experience,  and  whose  ‘  faith  was  spoken  of 
throughout  the  whole  world.’  Moreover,  the  deeper  we 
look  into  it  the  clearer  it  becomes  that  this  injunction  is 
a  call,  not  to  a  personal  but  to  a  corporate  consecration, 
in  which  the  whole  Church  is  to  combine,  that  it  may  be 
sanctified  and  unified  for  corporate  ends.  This  sub¬ 
ordination  of  the  individual  to  the  collective  ideal  is 
the  ruling  thought  in  Paul’s  mind,  and  we  can  justify 
our  inclusion  in  the  society  only  as  we  make  our  contribu¬ 
tion  in  the  way  of  work.  Paul  knows  the  value  of 
association,  and  if  he  can  only  organize  the  Christian 
Church  on  the  divine  model  of  the  human  body,  with  all 
its  harmonious  and  reciprocally  responsive  members, 
which  find  their  co-ordination  and  seat  of  legislation  in 
the  all-controlling  brain,  then  indeed  will  all  the  innumer¬ 
able  types  of  personal  character,  and  the  endless  varieties 
of  personal  gifts  in  the  Church,  find  their  unification  and 
inspiration  for  service  in  the  Head,  which  is  Christ. 
Paul  was  always  thinking  and  writing  in  these  comprehen¬ 
sive  and  corporate  terms.  He  saw  things  in  their  widest 
relations.  Redemption  was  to  him  the  all-inclusive 
term,  beyond  whose  recovering  reach  nothing  could  be 
conceived.  It  was  the  great  reconciling  principle,  embrac¬ 
ing  all  things  in  heaven  and  in  earth  and  under  the  earth, 
re-instating  them  in  righteousness,  conducting  them 
stage  by  stage  in  spiritual  culture,  and  converging  them 


103  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


all  to  an  ultimate  and  crowning  unity  which  should  at 
once  express  and  control  their  infinite  variety. 

This  twelfth  of  Romans  is  remarkable  for  its  combination 
of  mystical  and  practical  elements.  In  the  first  verse  one 
feels  that  he  is  standing  on  holy  ground,  and  that  it 
becomes  him  to  uncover  and  bow  down.  The  vision 
that  the  historic  imagination  conjures  up  on  reading 
these  words  is  that  of  the  ancient  Temple  ritual,  in  which 
the  High  Priest,  bearing  in  his  hands  the  unresisting 
victim  for  sacrifice,  lays  it  upon  the  altar  and  offers  its 
life  as  a  burnt-offering  for  the  remission  of  the  people's 
sins.  In  like  manner  are  we  instructed  to  bring  our 
bodies,  placing  them  in  full  surrender  on  the  spiritual 
altar,  not  to  be  consumed,  but  to  be  fired  with  the  passion 
of  a  new  love,  that  shall  bum  out  every  love  that  is  base, 
and  purge  of  its  earthliness  every  love  that  is  lawful,  in 
its  pure  and  purifying  flame.  This  new  and  wondrous 
love,  however,  does  not  exhaust  its  potency  in  the 
purification  of  the  merely  individual  personality.  It 
becomes  a  great  social  dynamic,  working  contagiously 
and  reconstruct! vely  throughout  the  communities  in 
which  it  lives.  For  goodness  is  as  contagious  as  badness, 
and  the  social  value  of  a  clean-living  soul  is  that  of  a 
preservative  from  national  corruption  and  decay.  Paul 
relies  on  the  reproductive  power  of  Divine  Love  to  induce 
the  spirit  of  surrender  which  he  enjoins.  He  beseeches 
'  by  the  mercies  of  God.’  It  is  love’s  appeal  to  love,  and 
because  love  is  essentially  social,  this  divine  expression 
of  it  is  always  prompting  its  individual  possessors  to 
association,  so  that,  organized  by  its  vital  and  constructive 
principle,  they  may  be  unified  and  intensified  for  service 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION  103 


by  the  pooling  of  their  gifts.  This  corporate  ideal  seems 
to  be  always  at  the  back  of  Paul’s  brain,  as  a  governing 
concept.  It  finds  fine  expression  in  this  chapter.  *  For 
as  we  have  many  members  in  one  body,  and  all  members 
have  not  the  same  office,  so  we  who  are  many  are  one 
body  in  Christ  and  severally  members  one  of  another.’ 

Then  follows  the  declaration,  *  having  gifts  differing 
according  to  the  measure  of  the  grace  given  unto  us,’  a 
passage  that  is  in  fine  correspondence,  as  we  have  seen, 
with  that  in  Ephesians.  Now  let  us  place  these  two 
passages  side  by  side.  *  Unto  each  one  of  us  is  given 
grace  according  to  the  measure  of  the  gift  of  Christ,’  thus 
he  writes  to  the  Ephesians.  ‘  Having  then  gifts  differ¬ 
ing  according  to  the  grace  given  unto  us,’  thus  to  the 
Romans.  Now  in  the  first  of  these  passages  the  grace  is 
said  to  be  measured  by  the  gift.  In  the  second,  the  gift 
is  measured  by  the  grace,  but  the  constant  in  these 
variants  is  the  principle  of  proportion  that  is  maintained. 
In  the  one,  prominence  is  given  to  the  vital  force  ;  in 
the  other,  to  the  vital  faculty,  the  force  having  been 
provided  for  by  the  directions  previously  laid  down.  But 
the  proportion  between  the  two  pairs  of  terms  is  equally 
affirmed  in  both  letters.  There  is,  however,  an  encourag¬ 
ing  suggestion  in  the  verse  that  we  are  now  considering, 
that  our  gifts  may  be  heightened  in  quality  and  increased 
in  quantity  according  to  the  draughts  that  we  are  prepared 
to  make  upon  the  grace  which  has  been  placed  to  our 
credit.  f  He  giveth  more  grace  ’  as  we  are  prepared  to 
take  it  up  and  translate  it  into  terms  of  character  and 
work.  There  is  absolutely  no  limit  to  the  power  on 
which  we  draw ;  the  only  limitation  is  in  our  own  carrying 


104  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


and  transforming  capacity.  Just  as  the  electric  power 
that  girdles  the  city  must  be  graduated  to  the  carrying 
capacity  of  the  wires  lest  it  bum  its  way  through  and 
be  dissipated  into  space,  so  the  spiritual  energies  that 
stream  into  human  life  have  to  be  measured  in  their 
force  and  flow  by  the  mental  and  even  physical  condition 
of  the  recipient,  or  else  the  soul,  becoming  too  intense  in 
its  spiritual  potency,  would  rend  the  veil  of  flesh  in  twain 
and  accomplish  its  escape.  It  is  in  the  fine  balance  and 
orderly  proportion  of  these  various  forces  to  the  medium 
of  their  expression  that  the  maximum  efficiency  of  life, 
whether  individual  or  corporate,  is  reached.  It  may  be  well 
for  us  later  to  deal  with  the  question  of  heightened  capacity 
and  augmented  talents,  following  on  loyal  and  diligent  use 
of  one's  original  endowment,  but  the  abstract  proposition 
will  be  immeasurably  heightened  in  force  if  the  principle 
can  be  shown  at  work  in  human  life,  and  illustrated  in  the 
concrete  terms  of  human  history.  In  the  early  history 
of  the  Christian  Church,  as  recorded  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  there  are  two  notable  instances,  one  of  which,  at 
least,  it  will  pay  us  to  consider  for  a  moment,  before  pass¬ 
ing  on  to  deal  with  the  elaboration  and  application  of  the 
principle  which  we  have  been  laying  down.  We  refer  to 
the  cases  of  Stephen  and  Philip,  two  men  who  were  taken 
in  on  the  ground  floor,  so  to  speak,  of  Christian  service, 
but  who  by  loyally  using  the  grace  in  the  exercise  of 
the  gift,  found  both  to  increase  in  such  ratio  as  to  demand 
and  discover  yet  broader  fields  of  service,  commensurate 
with  their  augmented  powers.  Let  us  take  the  case  of 
Stephen  for  a  moment,  by  way  of  illustrating  the  principle 
which  determines  that  the  loyal  functioning  of  one's 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


105 

gifts  leads  not  merely  to  the  heightening  of  their  efficiency, 
but  also  to  their  multiplication.  Stephen  was  started 
at  a  point  which  did  not  call  for  any  very  specialized  or 
oustanding  gift.  Just  good,  sound  common  sense, 
coupled  with  scrupulous  honesty  and  baptized  into  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus,  was  equal  to  the  requirements  of  the 
deacon’s  office.  These  Stephen  possessed  in  a  high 
degree,  and  they  were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  early 
Church,  thus  relieving  the  pressure  that  had  hitherto 
fallen  on  the  apostles  themselves,  and  setting  them  free 
to  work  exclusively  on  spiritual  lines.  This  allocation 
of  duties  on  departmental  principles  was  a  recognition 
of  the  need  for  specialization  if  the  best  work  was  to  be 
done  ;  and  it  speaks  well  for  the  sagacity  and  foresight 
of  these  apostles  that  they  both  saw  and  provided  for  this 
necessity.  What  they  did  not  see,  however,  was,  that 
though  they  might  place  a  man  in  the  deacon’s  office, 
they  could  not  keep  him  there.  Having  let  him  loose 
for  service  they  could  not  restrict  his  movements.  He 
speedily  got  out  of  hand.  He  no  longer  kept  step,  for 
he  was  marching  to  the  beat  of  another  drum.  It  was 
little  wonder  that  such  a  character  should  have  carved 
out  a  corresponding  career.  It  was  simply  the  working 
out  of  the  great  law  of  development  and  multiplication, 
that  he  should  thus  have  overflowed  the  narrow  limits 
of  a  mere  deacon’s  office  and  found  a  wider  sphere.  It 
may  be  suspected  that  even  from  the  first  he  was  too  great 
a  man  to  be  packed  within  so  prescribed  a  course.  But 
that  he  consented  to  begin  thus  on  the  bottom  flat,  and 
bide  his  time  for  promotion,  marked  him  out  as  a  man 
that  could  be  trusted  with  success.  Even  to  those, 


io6  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


however,  who  knew  him  best,  the  rapidity  of  his  develop¬ 
ment  must  have  come  as  a  startling  surprise.  Clearly 
all  this  man  needed  was  opportunity,  simply  a  fair  field 
and  no  favour.  For  the  rest,  he  himself  would  be  respons¬ 
ible.  He  had  not  sought  the  position  to  which  he  was 
assigned,  but  then  neither  had  he  declined  it.  He 
construed  the  Divine  Will  for  him  through  the  Divine 
Providence,  accepting  the  call  of  the  Church  as  the  com¬ 
mand  of  God.  Doubtless  with  his  accession  to  office  had 
come  an  accession  of  power,  that  is  to  say,  he  had  been 
granted  ‘  grace  according  to  the  gift  *  ;  for  whom  God 
calls  He  qualifies  and  equips,  whom  He  commands  He 
empowers.  What  a  means  of  self-revelation  this  ministry 
became  to  Stephen  !  How  his  work  educated  him  !  It 
is  ever  thus  when  a  man  finds  his  sphere  and  fills  it  to  the 
utmost  of  his  power.  It  is  a  supreme  moment  in  his 
history  when  a  man  thus  comes  to  the  knowledge  of  him¬ 
self  and  his  mission.  At  what  precise  moment  this 
consciousness  flashed  upon  Stephen,  or  whether  it  broke 
gradually  like  the  dawning  of  the  day,  we  have  no  means 
of  ascertaining.  But  it  came  without  a  doubt,  along  the 
line  of  lowly  duty,  loyally  performed.  Here  is  the  great 
principle  for  which  we  are  contending,  a  universal  principle 
holding  good  for  all  time  and  for  every  man.  The  way 
to  the  greater  is  ever  through  the  less.  Fidelity  to  the 
duty  in  hand  is  the  ‘  open  sesame  *  to  ampler  trusts  and 
wider  fields.  To  be  tumbling  over  real  duties  which  lie 
unregarded  at  our  feet,  in  order  to  compass  fancied  ones 
at  a  distance,  is  a  fatal  disqualification  for  stewardship, 
for  he  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least  can  alone  be 
entrusted  with  much.  Stephen  so  filled  the  deacon’s 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


office  that  it  became  a  stepping  stone  to  higher  things. 
There  may  have  been  a  fitness  in  the  principle  laid  down 
by  Peter  that  it  was  not  reason  that  the  apostles  should 
leave  the  word  of  God  and  serve  tables ;  but  while  apostles 
might  not  graduate  down  to  be  deacons,  there  was  no 
reason  why  deacons  should  not  graduate  up  to  be 
apostles.  And  this  is  precisely  what  Stephen  did.  '  Full 
of  grace  and  power  he  wrought  great  miracles  among 
the  people/  Here  as  always  the  inner  determined  the 
outer.  Doing  is  the  expression  of  being.  What  a  man 
is  sets  the  limit  to  what  he  can  achieve.  He  himself 
must  always  be  greater  than  any  task  he  can  perform. 
We  ourselves  may  be  better  than  our  work,  but  our  work 
will  never  transcend  ourselves.  There  was  no  stopping 
Stephen,  nor,  we  may  be  sure,  was  there  any  desire  to, 
for  there  was  no  jealousy  among  these  Spirit-filled  men. 
They  were  too  full  of  zeal  for  the  common  cause  to  envy 
one  another’s  success.  This  is  as  it  should  be.  Joffre’s 
success  in  the  war  was  Haig’s  and  Haig's  was  Joffre’s. 
Beatty’s  achievements  were  Jellicoe’s  and  Jellicoe’s 
Beatty’s;  and  there  is  nothing  finer  on  record  than  the 
unstinted  praise  which  each  accords  the  other,  or  more 
impressive  than  the  splendid  co-ordination  of  our  Allies 
on  all  fronts  against  the  merciless  tyranny  that  would 
have  enslaved  the  world.  Each  one’s  glory  was  the 
other’s  because  all  were  fighting  for  the  faith  and  freedom 
of  mankind.  And  so  Stephen’s  achievements  were 
Peter’s  and  John’s,  because  they  were  all  for  Christ  and 
His  Church.  So  too,  to-day,  the  true  spiritual  success 
of  the  Roman  Church,  the  Greek  Church,  the  Anglican 
or  the  Presbyterian,  the  Independent  or  the  Baptist  is 


io8  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


as  truly  ours  as  it  is  theirs,  and  makes  us  glad,  because 
we  all  serve  a  common  Master  and  fight  a  common  foe, 
for  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  there  is  neither  Roman  nor 
Greek,  Anglican  nor  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Congrega¬ 
tional,  nor  Methodist,  but  Christ  is  all  and  in  all. 

From  what  we  have  seen  it  is  clear  that  a  gift  is  not 
merely  heightened  in  efficiency  by  being  fully  functioned 
in  its  appropriate  sphere,  but  that  it  tends  to  multiply 
and  ramify  into  other  and  even  more  reproductive  fields. 
It  is  important  to  remember  that  in  the  distribution  of 
spiritual  gifts  no  one  is  overlooked.  As  surely  as  grace 
is  universal  and  without  respect  of  persons,  so  are  gifts. 
The  human  body  which  Paul  employs  here  as  an  analogy 
finely  illustrates  the  variety  of  functions  which  are  to 
come  into  exercise  in  the  Christian  Church  as  the  organized 
body  of  Christ.  In  that  body  we  have  each  a  place  to  fill 
and  a  duty  to  perform.  To  find  that  place  and  then  to 
fill  it,  to  the  utmost  of  our  capacity,  is  to  present  to  the 
world  a  perpetually  recurring  incarnation  of  the  Christ- 
spirit  in  the  world  of  living  men. 

If,  as  Paul  affirms,  the  Church  is  Christ’s  body,  then 
the  human  soul  is  to  the  human  body  what  Christ 
is  to  His  Church.  It  becomes  His  mode  of  continued  self¬ 
manifestation.  Thus  it  carries  on  the  Saviour’s  ministry. 
That  is  to  say,  wherever  there  is  a  true  Church,  by  what¬ 
soever  name  it  may  be  called,  it  becomes  a  point  where 
God  and  man  may  meet  and  come  into  fulfilled  relation. 
This  is  the  true  function  of  the  Church,  to  bring  the  race 
into  this  fellowship,  to  make  fresh  annexations  to  the 
kingdom  of  God,  acquiring  continuously  new  territory 
in  the  way  of  surrendered  human  wills. 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


109 


Thus  to  breathe  about  men  an  atmosphere  of  loving 
welcome,  to  weave  about  them  sweet  and  wholesome 
bonds  of  affection,  to  represent  God  to  them,  displaying 
His  solicitude,  expressing  His  tenderness,  reaching  out  to 
the  farthest  away  and  down  to  the  lowest  sunk,  including 
all  men  everywhere  in  our  saving  purpose  and  pursuit, 
this  is  to  know  the  fellowship  of  Christ's  sufferings  and 
to  be  made  conformable  unto  His  death. 

Now  we  come  into  the  fine  fellowship  of  this  Body  oi 
Christ  through  the  gift  of  spiritual  life,  and  not  into  the 
gift  of  spiritual  life  through  fellowship  with  the  Body. 
So  that  here  Paul's  analogy  appears  to  break  down.  A 
member  of  the  human  body  comes  into  being  only  through 
the  body,  and  is  maintained  only  as  it  is  related  to  the 
body.  It  cannot  survive  separation  from  it.  Excepting 
within  certain  clearly  defined  limits  it  is  not  given  to  any 
function  or  organ  to  have  life  in  itself,  and  independently 
of  this  corporate  relation.  Only  in  association  can  it 
continue  to  be  or  do  or  suffer.  Its  life  is  not  inherent, 
but  derived  and  dependent.  Indeed,  a  limb  may  be  even 
in  the  body  organically,  and  yet  be  a  perished  function, 
but  out  of  the  body  altogether  it  is  simply  nought. 

The  Body  of  Christ,  however,  consists  of  members,  each 
of  which  is  a  radiant  life  centre  in  itself,  not  indeed  in¬ 
dependent  of  Him,  but  frequently  found  independent  of 
any  realized  relation  to  others  who  are  partakers  of  like 
precious  faith.  The  true  idea  of  the  Church,  then,  as  a 
spiritual  organism,  is  not  an  assembly  of  individuals, 
who,  by  virtue  of  such  assembly,  come  into  the  possession 
of  spiritual  life.  It  is  the  drawing  together  into  a 
structural  union  of  those  who  have  already  received  the 


no  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


grace  and  gifts  of  the  new  life,  and  the  organizing  of  them 
into  a  corporate  unity  for  the  purpose  of  more  effective 
service  than  they  could  render  individually  and  apart. 

Hence  there  are  vast  numbers  who  have  been  made 
partakers  of  spiritual  life,  who  have  never  yet  come  into 
this  mutual  relation,  and  it  was  to  these  that  Paul  in  this 
chapter  referred.  As  we  have  seen,  the  consecration 
spoken  of  in  the  first  verse  is  not  individual.  That  has 
already  taken  place  long  before,  as  the  previous  chapters 
indicate.  No,  it  was  concerted  consecration  that  was 
enjoined.  Just  look  at  the  concluding  verse  of  the 
preceding  chapter,  where,  speaking  of  God,  Paul 
declares  ‘  Of  Him  and  through  Him,  and  to  Him  are  all 
things/ 

This  cosmic  view  filled  and  thrilled  the  imagination  of 
the  apostle,  and  his  supreme  desire  was  to  see  it  expressed 
in  moral  terms  of  voluntary  service.  It  must  be 
voluntary.  Hence  the  tone  of  beseeching  entreaty  and 
tender  persuasion.  But  though  thus  voluntary,  it  is  of 
paramount  necessity,  if  even  the  highest  personal 
efficiency  is  to  be  reached,  to  say  nothing  of  the  corporate 
requirements  of  the  case.  Paul  saw  the  Divine  Will 
flowing  freely  through  all  things  and  harmonizing  them 
all  into  a  federation  of  mutual  service.  This  will  was 
seen  linking  the  flower  of  the  field  with  the  timeless 
courses  of  the  stars.  But  when  Paul  looked  at  the 
Church  he  found  no  such  linkage.  Every  one  was  think¬ 
ing  of  himself  and  for  himself.  Hence  the  call  ‘  For  I  say 
through  the  grace  given  unto  me  to  every  man  that  is 
among  you  not  to  think  of  himself  more  highly  than  he 
ought  to  think/  Each  had  to  think,  in  order  that  he 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


hi 


might  act,  in  corporate  terms.  It  is  this  community 
idea,  then,  for  which  Paul  pleads.  Unless  the  law  of 
relation  be  fulfilled  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  organic 
unity  in  history,  and  humanity  to  be  understood  must 
be  historically  considered  and  construed. 

The  centuries  reach  back  and  forth  and  interlock 
through  all  their  busy  days  and  quiet  nights.  The 
generations  are  linked  together  in  spirit  as  well  as  flesh. 
Their  thoughts,  their  feelings,  their  aspirations,  the 
ideals  for  which  they  wrought  and  fought  did  not  perish 
with  them,  they  persist  and  pursue  their  victorious  way 
through  shine  and  storm,  through  peace  and  war,  by 
daylight  and  by  dark.  Of  the  world  of  thought  and 
insight,  it  must  be  affirmed  as  of  the  world  of  matter  by 
Galileo.  ‘  Yet  it  moves  ’  !  The  community  idea,  rooting 
itself  in  the  social  instincts  of  the  race,  breaks  into  fairest 
flower  and  ripens  into  richest  fruit  in  the  fellowship  of 
the  Christian  Church.  There  it  is  placed  under  culture 
and  graduated  for  that  organized  unity  in  which  all 
souls  shall  come  through  Christ  into  that  all-world  society 
in  which  each  shall  be  for  the  others  and  all  shall  be  for 
God. 

A  community,  then,  grows  in  power  of  mutual  adjust¬ 
ment,  understanding,  reciprocity  of  spirit,  clearness  of 
perception,  corporate  action,  centripetal  force,  social  self- 
consciousness  and  power  of  re-acting  on  the  surrounding 
world  of  thought  and  practice  so  as  to  work  it  up  into  its 
own  likeness.  It  evolves  a  spirit  of  loyalty  among  its 
members,  and  a  sense  of  obligation  more  powerful  than 
any  written  statute ;  and  to  this  they  instinctively 
respond.  We  have  no  single  English  word  to  express 


112 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


this,  and  there  is  something  ironical  in  the  fact  that  in 
1913  Lord  Haldane,  visiting  Canada  as  Lord  Chancellor 
of  Great  Britain,  addressed  the  American  Bar  Association 
only  nine  months  before  the  war,  on  ‘  Sittlichkeit/ 
which  is  the  German  word  for  the  thing  we  mean.  In  the 
course  of  that  address  he  said  :  ‘  There  is  a  more  exten¬ 
sive  system  of  guidance  (than  legality  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  dictates  of  the  individual  conscience  on  the 
other)  which  regulates  conduct  and  which  differs  from 
both  in  its  character  and  sanction.  It  applies,  like  law, 
to  all  the  members  of  a  society  alike,  without  distinction 
of  persons.  It  resembles  the  morality  of  conscience  in 
that  it  is  enforced  by  no  legal  compulsion.  In  the  English 
language  we  have  no  name  for  it,  and  this  is  unfortunate, 
for  the  lack  of  a  distinctive  name  has  occasioned  con¬ 
fusion  both  of  thought  and  of  expression.  German 
writers  have,  however,  marked  out  the  system  to  which 
I  refer,  and  have  given  it  the  name  of  “  Sittlichkeit.”  In 
his  book  Der  Zweck  im  Recht,  Rudolph  von  Jhering,  a 
famous  Professor  at  Gottingen,  with  whose  figure  I  was 
familiar  when  I  was  a  student  there  nearly  forty  years 
ago,  pointed  out  in  the  part  which  he  devoted  to  the 
subject  of  “  Sittlichkeit,”  that  it  was  the  merit  of  the 
German  language  to  have  been  the  only  one  to  find  a 
really  distinctive  and  scientific  expression  for  it.  “  Sitt¬ 
lichkeit  ”  is  the  system  of  habitual  or  customary  conduct, 
ethical  rather  than  legal,  which  embraces  all  those 
obligations  of  the  citizen  which  it  is  “  bad  form  ”  or  “  not 
the  thing  ”  to  disregard/  Now  without  waiting  to  show 
that  if  we  have  not  the  ‘  Name  *  we  have  what  is  infinitely 
better  than  the  name  in  the  thing  itself,  let  it  be  pointed 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


ii3 

out  that  the  Christian  Society  is  organized  in  love,  its 
structural  principle  is  love,  and  love  never  fails.  Because 
the  Church  stands  as  the  organized  love  of  God  in  re¬ 
deemed  personalities  that  have  made  His  will  their  law, 
no  weapon  that  is  formed  against  it  can  prosper.  It  will 
abide  ‘  when  all  that  seems  shall  suffer  shock,’  for  its  life 
is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 


8 


H4  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


i 

The  Function  of  Prophecy 

*  Whether  prophecy,  let  us  prophesy  according  to  the  proportion 
of  faith.’ — Rom.  xii.  6. 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  have  seen  grace  and  gifts  running 
side  by  side  as  concurrent  streams  of  the  divine  bene¬ 
ficence,  and  that  the  recipient  of  grace  was  simultaneously 
endowed  with  a  corresponding  gift,  through  which  the 
grace  might  find  expression  in  terms  of  service.  The 
amount  of  grace  appropriated  and  utilized,  it  is  clear, 
determines  the  position  of  each  recipient  in  the  graduated 
scale  of  endowments.  The  steps  in  their  order  of  prece¬ 
dence  are  enumerated  by  Paul  in  his  letter  to  the  Corin¬ 
thians,  ‘  First  apostles,  secondly  prophets,  thirdly  teachers, 
then  miracles,  then  gifts  of  healing,  helps,  governments, 
and  divers  kinds  of  tongues/  At  the  same  time,  as  we 
have  seen  in  the  case  of  Stephen,  there  is  nothing  to 
prevent  those  even  in  the  seventh  class  from  graduating 
up  to  the  first,  the  way  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
being  open  to  all,  from  whatever  level  they  may  com¬ 
mence  the  ascent.  From  the  position  that  prophecy 
occupies  in  the  apostle’s  scale  of  values,  it  is  clear  that 
next  to  apostleship  itself,  it  is  in  and  through  this  gift 
that  grace  comes  to  its  highest  power  of  expression.  But 
here  let  it  be  noted  that  we  must  beware  of  putting  too 
prescribed  an  interpretation  on  the  term  ‘  prophecy,’ 
lest,  by  narrowing  its  scope,  we  limit  its  application  to 
that  few  and  almost  negligible  number  of  persons  who 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PROPHECY  115 

in  every  age  have  been  able  to  forecast  future  events, 
either  by  direct  inspiration  or  by  reading  the  portents  of 
the  moral  sky.  This  faculty  for  prediction  was  unques¬ 
tionably  possessed  and  displayed  by  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
but  its  exercise  was  only  occasional  and  did  not  by  any 
means  represent  the  whole  nor  even  the  greater  part  of 
their  work.  It  was,  however,  the  part  that  most  power¬ 
fully  appealed  to  the  popular  imagination.  Thus  in  the 
general  estimation  it  came  to  bulk  out  of  all  proportion 
to  other  and  far  more  important  though  less  dramatic 
contributions  which  the  prophets  made  to  the  moral  and 
intellectual  life  of  the  nation.  It  gave  the  prophet  a 
prestige  that  was  absolutely  unique,  taking  priority  to 
even  royalty  itself,  for  again  and  again  the  prophet  in 
his  mantle  confronted  and  abashed  the  monarch  in  his 
purple,  and  flung  the  charge  of  falseness  in  the  very 
face  of  kings.  The  precedence  thus  universally  accorded 
to  the  prophet  was  not  without  its  corresponding  peril. 
Such  power,  as  we  have  seen,  always  has  its  risks,  and 
its  possession,  coupled  with  the  popular  demand  for  some 
convincing  sign  from  heaven,  whether  in  the  way  of 
miraculous  intervention  or  some  uplifting  of  the  veil 
between  the  present  and  the  future,  created  a  temptation 
which  they  were  not  always  able  to  resist.  This  was 
only  natural,  for  they  were  but  men  of  like  passions  with 
ourselves,  and  the  temptation  must  at  times  have  been 
overwhelming  to  meet  the  clamour  of  the  hour  by  simulat¬ 
ing  the  prophetic  gift.  Jealousy  for  their  own  reputation 
took  the  place  of  jealousy  for  Jehovah,  so  that  they 
substituted  the  forecasts  of  their  own  prescience  for  His 
inspirations,  and  were  found  speaking  more  than  they 


n6 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


knew,  and  foretelling  further  than  they  foresaw.  One 
cannot  but  feel  as  he  reads  the  warning  note  of  our  text, 
that  this  attendant  peril  of  the  prophetic  gift  in  its  New 
Testament  sense  of  power  to  unveil  the  mysteries  of  the 
Gospel  must  have  been  present  to  the  apostle’s  mind. 
The  danger  of  being  wise  above  what  has  been  written 
always  threatens  the  mystical  mind.  This  great  apostle 
claims  for  himself  and  his  colleagues  that  they  were 
'  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God/  from  which  he  passes 
on  to  declare  that  in  handling  this  supreme  trust,  the 
first  grand  necessity  is  fidelity.  Compared  with  this 
nothing  else  matters.  Either  to  survive  the  judgement 
of  man  or  to  fall  under  his  condemnation  is  in  Paul’s 
estimation  of  the  least  possible  consideration.  The 
supremely  important  thing  is  to  stand  clear  at  the  judge¬ 
ment  seat  of  Christ  from  whom  they  held  their  commission 
and  to  whom  therefore  they  must  give  account.  This 
fact  of  accountability,  coupled  with  the  sense  of  it, 
exerts  a  twofold  influence  It  is  at  once  a  stimulative 
and  a  regulative  force.  Of  these  two  the  chief  danger, 
as  he  hints,  would  seem  to  lie  in  the  direction  of  deficient 
regulation.  It  is  a  gift  that  tends  to  get  out  of  control 
and  to  create  the  temptation  to  go  beyond  the  things  that 
are  written  ;  thus  its  possessor  is  in  danger  of  losing  the 
sense  of  proportion  which,  according  to  Paul,  it  is  of 
supreme  importance  he  should  maintain.  The  faculty  of 
spiritual  insight,  like  every  other  power,  can  be  abused. 
The  safeguard  lies  in  comparison,  ‘  comparing  spiritual 
things  with  spiritual.’  Hence  the  necessity  for  setting 
up  and  sustaining  corporate  relations  that  the  private 
and  personal  equation  may  be  duly  checked.  Here,  then. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PROPHECY 


ii  7 

are  the  two  perils  which  attend  the  prophet’s  gift.  First, 
lest  its  possessor  should  through  any  self-consideration 
hold  back  the  truth  as  he  sees  it,  or  so  cushion  its  impact 
as  he  says  it,  as  to  neutralize  its  force  and  thus  frustrate 
the  purpose  for  which  it  has  been  divinely  disclosed.  The 
need  of  that,  and  this,  and  every  age  is  for  men  who  can 
see  and  seize  and  say  the  truth  unhesitatingly,  unequivo¬ 
cally  and  with  absolute  courage  and  candour,  and  yet 
with  kindness  of  heart.  To  go  beyond  the  terms  of  his 
commission,  however,  is  for  the  prophet  to  abuse  his 
power,  and  the  tendency  to  abuse  is  inseparable  from 
its  use.  But  to  yield  to  the  pressure  of  this  perpetually 
recurring  temptation  is  to  betray  a  want  of  faith  in  the 
power  of  the  truth  itself  to  win  its  own  way  unless  artifici¬ 
ally  enforced.  In  such  a  case  positions  are  taken  up 
which  cannot  be  maintained,  and  the  subsequent  abandon¬ 
ment  of  which  reacts  with  disaster  and  discredit  on  both 
the  man  and  his  message.  Hence  the  caution  against  going 
in  speech  beyond  what  faith  can  acquire  and  sustain  ; 
because  to  say  from  mere  human  sagacity  or  desire  that 
for  which  there  is  no  divine  authority  is  to  find  one’s 
self  driven  to  defend  positions  which  ought  never  to  have 
been  assumed  and  for  which  there  is  no  adequate  moral 
support.  It  is  through  faith  that  prophecy  becomes 
possible,  that  is  to  say,  the  mysteries  of  spiritual  truth 
yield  up  their  secrets  only  to  those  whose  purged  vision 
can  push  behind  and  beneath  the  veils  of  sense  and 
interpret  the  hidden  meanings  of  the  things  we  touch 
and  see.  ‘  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,’  says  Christ, 
*  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life.’  But  words  at  best 
are  but  imperfect  exponents  of  thought,  they  only  half 


n8  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


reveal  and  half  conceal  the  truth  they  seek  to  express. 
The  prophetic  gift  leads  behind  the  veil  of  words  and 
enables  its  possessor  to  dwell  among  those  mystical 
realities  for  which  the  verbal  symbols  stand.  But  to 
guess  merely  where  one  should  know,  to  create  where 
one  should  simply  interpret,  to  imagine  where  he  should 
merely  report,  is  to  take  leave  of  faith  and  to  fall  under 
the  power  of  presumption.  Thus  every  virtue  can  be 
pushed  to  the  extreme  where  it  passes  into  a  vice.  An 
illustration  of  this  truth  on  the  practical  plane  is  seen  in 
the  story  of  the  Lord’s  temptation.  The  first  temptation 
was  a  test  of  faith.  ‘  Command  these  stones  that  they 
be  made  bread.'  In  other  words  '  Look  after  yourself, 
your  trust  in  God  has  befooled  you  and  led  you  into  this 
wilderness  of  hunger  and  peril.  It  is  time  you  took  a 
hand  in  your  own  deliverance.'  Faith  rose  to  the  occasion, 
surmounted  the  dark  doubt  that  had  been  suggested, 
and  gazed  with  steady  vision  on  the  changeless  love 
which  dwelt  behind  the  changing  years,  and  felt  no  fear. 
But  that  very  perfection  of  faith  became  its  point  of 
peril  lest  it  should  pass  the  limit  that  divides  it  from 
presumption  ;  and  to  push  it  past  that  line,  to  strain  it, 
so  to  speak,  to  its  breaking  point,  was  the  dark  and 
devilish  purpose  of  the  second  temptation.  It  was  as 
though  Christ’s  very  victory  put  a  fresh  and  powerful 
weapon  into  the  adversary’s  hand.  This  is  the  force  of 
the  second  temptation  :  ‘  Oh,  you  trust  in  God  absolutely, 
do  you  ?  Well,  that  is  very  beautiful  and  commendable, 
but  this  proof  after  all  is  only  negative  at  the  best.  I 
will  show  you  the  way  of  positive  proof,  in  which  there 
will  be  a  daring  and  dramatic  demonstration  of  your 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PROPHECY 


119 

faith  in  your  Heavenly  Father’s  care.  From  this  temple’s 
height  cast  yourself  down,  for  it  is  written,  “  He  shall 
give  His  angels  charge  over  thee,  and  in  their  hands  they 
shall  bear  thee  up  lest  thou  dash  thy  foot  against  a 
stone.”  ’  But  there  was  no  insanity  about  Christ’s  trust. 
Here  was  no  wild  unbalanced  fanatic  who  had  lost  the 
sense  of  proportion  or  perspective ;  and  though  the  devil 
had  quoted  Scripture,  yet  with  one  dexterous  counter¬ 
quotation  Christ  thrust  to  the  very  heart  of  the  tempta¬ 
tion,  and  showed  that  such  an  act  of  defiance  would  be 
faith  no  more,  but  a  presumptuous  tempting  of  the 
Lord  His  God.  From  all  of  which  we  see  how  extreme 
is  the  necessity  for  safeguarding  these  gifts  of  God  from 
abuse  lest  the  very  privilege  which  exalts  us  to  the  Heaven 
of  opportunity  should  be  so  abused  as  to  thrust  us  into 
the  hell  of  disappointed  expectation  and  unrealized 
desire. 

To  maintain  the  true  proportion  of  things  seems  to  be 
the  burden  of  the  apostle’s  message,  and  one  feels  that 
there  must  have  been  a  history  behind  this  injunction 
which  made  it  necessary  for  the  early  Church.  The  word 
4  proportion  ’  in  our  text  suggests  working  to  a  scale,  it  pre¬ 
supposes  a  standard.  In  the  original  it  spells  ‘  analogy,’ 
which  is  a  purely  Greek  word.  It  is  a  noun  of  course  in 
our  text,  but  in  its  form  as  a  verb  it  signifies  to  ‘  keep  up 
to,  as  to  a  standard,  to  be  conformable  to,  as  to  a  pattern 
or  type.’  The  use  of  this  term,  therefore,  by  the  apostle 
implies  that  even  if  there  were  as  yet  no  formulated 
system  of  doctrine  expressed  in  *  Articles  of  Faith,’  there 
was  nevertheless  an  unwritten  but  clearly  understood 
and  accepted  body  of  belief  which  had  gradually  grown 


120 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


up  and  become  current  in  the  shape  of  tradition,  by 
which  any  claims  to  new  inspiration  might  be  tested, 
and  with  which  any  fresh  interpretation  of  what  had 
already  been  revealed  might  be  compared.  When 
‘  faith/  understood  as  the  soul’s  act  of  trust,  breaks  its 
bounds  and  becomes  presumption,  then  the  ‘  faith/ 
understood  as  a  system  of  belief,  undergoes  corruption, 
and  by  an  inevitable  logic  works  out  into  corruption  of 
life.  When  wrong-doing  is  practised  thus  under  a  religious 
sanction,  the  lowest  deeps  of  depravity  become  possible, 
for  it  has  passed  into  a  proverb  '  that  the  best  things 
when  corrupted  become  the  worst/  This  relation  between 
belief  and  behaviour  is  everywhere  recognized.  Harmony 
between  them  is  the  test  of  rationality.  This  principle 
displays  itself  in  every  department  of  human  activity 
and  in  all  the  working  days  of  life.  If  you  ask  a  man 
why  he  embarks  on  a  certain  enterprise,  it  is  a  quite 
sufficient  reply  if  he  says,  ‘  I  believe  in  it/  while  on  the 
other  hand  that  you  do  not  happen  to  share  his  faith  is 
a  good  enough  reason  to  you  as  a  common-sense  man  for 
keeping  your  money  in  your  pocket.  Were  you  each  to 
reverse  your  policy  without  exchanging  your  creed,  you 
would  be  regarded  as  qualifying  for  mental  treatment. 
A  man  who  would  claim  in  business  that  it  did  not  matter 
what  he  believed  in  the  way  of  commercial  honour  as 
long  as  he  ran  straight  in  practice,  is  a  man  to  keep  your 
eye  on.  It  is  true  that  he  may  run  straighter  than  his 
creed,  but  that  will  be  either  because  of  inherited  moral 
integrity  or  the  outside  pressure  of  public  opinion  which 
stands  embodied  in  laws  and  enforced  by  penalties.  But 
where  the  motive  for  going  straight  lies  outside  the  man 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PROPHECY 


121 


in  the  shape  of  police  and  prisons,  instead  of  inside  of 
him  in  the  shape  of  moral  convictions  and  compulsions, 
the  inevitable  tendency  will  be  to  curve  from  the  straight 
in  order  to  correspond  with  his  warped  opinions,  instead 
of  keeping  to  the  straight  by  running  counter  to  them. 
Where  the  fear  of  punishment  is  the  only  motive  to  right 
conduct,  ingenuity  will  for  ever  be  addressing  itself  to 
the  problem  of  how  not  to  be  found  out.  The 
fact  is,  one  cannot  keep  up  an  incessant  struggle  of  this 
kind.  He  must  weary  of  the  contest  and  seek  the  point 
of  compromise.  Conviction  and  conduct  must  come  to 
an  understanding,  or  one’s  life  will  be  in  perpetual  discord. 
When  a  man  is  not  prepared  to  make  bad  conduct  conform 
to  a  good  creed,  he  will  seek  to  degrade  the  good  creed  to 
conformity  with  bad  conduct.  He  may  choose  either  to 
level  up  or  level  down,  but  level  he  must,  because  nature 
abhors  any  tilt  in  the  scale-beam  and  everywhere  works 
towards  balance.  So  that  here  we  see  the  practical 
bearing  of  the  apostle’s  injunction.  It  is  not  merely  a 
speculative  truth  he  is  uttering,  having  only  an  academic 
value  and  suited  merely  to  those  who  deal  in  metaphysical 
abstractions  ;  it  is  profoundly  practical,  and  has  a  working 
value  for  every  man  and  woman  of  us,  for  what  is  thought 
to-day  is  wrought  to-morrow.  As  we  believe  so  we 
achieve.  This  it  is,  as  we  shall  see,  that  gives  the  teacher 
his  supremacy  as  the  shaping  force  of  the  age.  The  man 
who  determines  the  manner  of  a  people’s  thinking 
orders  the  course  of  the  nation’s  life. 


122  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


2 

The  Function  of  Ministry 

*  Let  us  wait  on  our  ministry.' — Rom.  xii.  7. 

This  is  the  working  end  of  things  ;  the  practical  side  of 
the  religious  life.  It  is  that  which  constitutes  its  supreme 
vindication.  The  word  '  ministry  *  has  come  to  have  a 
much  narrower  meaning  in  many  minds  than  that  which 
it  was  originally  employed  to  denote.  It  requires  to  be 
rescued  and  reinstated.  There  is  practically  no  end  to  its 
multiplied  meanings  and  applications.  This  command¬ 
ment  is  exceeding  broad,  and  when  Paul  enforces  it, 
there  is  no  fear  of  its  dimensions  being  curtailed.  Nothing 
pleased  him  better  than  to  see  and  show  the  service¬ 
ableness  of  the  truths  he  preached. 

Even  in  dealing  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection 
when  writing  to  the  Corinthians,  it  was  not  for  the  purpose 
of  establishing  it  as  a  merely  speculative  truth,  or  even 
that  the  bereaved  might  be  consoled,  that  his  mighty 
argument  was  constructed.  He  achieves  this,  of  course, 
but  he  had  more  strenuous  ends  in  view.  He  employed 
the  doctrine  as  a  mighty  driving-wheel  to  which  he  geared 
up  '  the  work  of  the  Lord.’  He  allows  logic  to  burst  into 
flames  of  rhetoric,  but  only  that,  through  it,  he  may  kindle 
in  others  the  passion  for  service  that  glowed  in  his  own 
heart  and  mastered  his  life.  He  had  shown  these  Corin¬ 
thians  in  an  earlier  chapter  how  in  order  that  service 
might  be  constant  and  overflowing  in  manifold  ministries 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  MINISTRY 


123 


it  must  draw  on  some  perennial  fount  of  energy.  The 
Triple  Dynamic  which  he  had  disclosed  as  surviving  when 
every  other  power  would  have  become  a  spent  and 
perished  force  was  Faith  and  Hope  and  Love.  So  that 
here  we  have  unveiled  as  a  guarantee  of  abiding  and 
abounding  service,  the  power  of  an  unshakable  trust, 
the  power  of  an  unquenchable  hope,  and  the  power  of  an 
undying  love,  and  the  greatest  of  these,  he  tells  us,  is  the 
last.  In  like  manner  the  practical  injunctions  in  this 
twelfth  of  Romans  are  all  found  running  their  roots  back 
into  the  soil  of  fulfilled  relations  with  God  and  man  as 
set  forth  in  verse  one. 

Ministry,  then,  in  the  sense  of  the  gift  of  administration, 
is  the  specialized  function  that  is  indicated  here.  The 
word  employed  is  that  which  is  used  to  mark  the  office 
of  the  deacon  in  the  early  Church.  It  served  to  dis¬ 
tinguish  between  ministry  in  what  Peter  called  ‘  the 
word  of  God  *  and  the  ministry  of  secular  affairs,  in 
organizing  the  financial  and  business  department  of  the 
Church,  and  not  only  of  the  Church,  but  likewise  of  the 
State — for  as  Paul  shows  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  his 
letter  to  the  Romans,  those  who  administer  the  affairs  of 
the  realm  are  ordained  of  God,  and  must  be  held  in 
rightful  re verence  on  account  of  the  commission  they  hold. 
Now  that  there  are  men  specially  qualified  for  administra¬ 
tive  work  is  too  patent  to  require  proof,  and  it  is  as  truly 
the  ‘  work  of  the  Lord  *  as  that  of  prophet  or  priest.  We 
have  to  be  careful  in  using  the  phrases  ‘  spiritual  work ' 
and  ‘  secular  work  ’  lest  we  come  to  regard  them  as 
necessarily  antithetical  terms.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
neither  spirituality  nor  secularity  can  reside  in  the  work 


124  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


itself.  They  can  exist  alone  in  the  mind  and  motive  of 
the  worker.  Even  the  sweeping  of  the  streets  may  thus 
become  sacred  and  the  preaching  of  a  sermon  most 
basely  secular. 

The  kingdom  of  God  and  the  kingdom  of  man  are  not  to 
be  held  as  mutually  excluding  one  another.  More 
mischief  than  can  be  measured  has  been  wrought  by 
failing  to  recognize  that  the  kingdom  of  God  roofs  in  all 
that  is  legitimate  in  the  kingdom  of  man.  Those  who 
guard  the  sanitary  interests  of  London  by  attending  to 
the  underground  sewage  system  are  as  truly  servants  of 
the  Crown  as  those  who  are  clothed  with  legislative 
functions  at  Westminster,  and  unless  the  former  do  their 
work  satisfactorily  there  would  presently  be  very  little  use 
for  the  latter.  In  like  manner  those  who  are  endeavour¬ 
ing  in  the  fear  of  God  and  for  the  good  of  this  country 
to  administer  the  affairs  of  State  are  as  truly  ministers 
of  God,  as  those  who  have  been  ordained  to  preach  His 
Word.  This  is  their  special  function,  and  to  this  they 
have  been  called.  And  here  let  me  say,  on  behalf  of 
this  ministry  in  public  affairs,  what  I  could  wish  might 
find  a  wider  audience  than  this  lecture  is  ever  likely  to 
command. 

The  cares  of  public  office  in  these  days  must  be  pressing 
very  heavily  upon  conscientious  men.  All  their  best 
gifts  of  heart  and  brain  are  being  taxed  to  the  limit,  in 
dealing  with  the  problems  which  the  war  has  either 
created  or  accentuated,  and  made  more  difficult  to  solve. 
Now,  it  is  easy  enough  to  perceive  the  overstrain  all  this 
imposes  on  our  public  men  ;  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
indicate  the  line  of  possible  and  permanent  relief.  Indeed 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  MINISTRY 


125 


how  many  of  us  ever  give  the  question  a  single  moment’s 
thought  ?  Too  many  of  us  simply  take  all  the  sacrifices 
that  are  made  for  us,  whether  in  peace  or  war,  as  a  mere 
matter  of  course,  sitting  down  and  enjoying  all  the  fruits 
of  sacrificial  toil  on  the  part  of  others,  without  a  thought 
as  to  whence  or  how  they  came,  or  what  they  cost.  We 
seem  to  forget  that  these  public  men  are  our  own  represent¬ 
atives — that  it  is  our  responsibilities  they  are  facing,  our 
work  they  are  doing,  our  burdens  that  they  bear.  It  may 
be  true  that  they  are  paid  for  their  services.  But  such 
service  when  rendered  by  high-principled  citizens,  such 
toil  of  heart  and  brain  as  is  called  for  in  the  conscientious 
service  of  the  State,  can  never  be  paid  for  in  coin  of  the 
realm.  Such  service  outruns  all  market  values.  Its 
worth  can  never  be  assessed  or  expressed  in  terms  of 
currency.  It  belongs  to  another  category — to  a  realm 
where  gold  is  not  the  medium  of  exchange.  Nay,  the 
only  way  to  pay  for  sacrificial  service  is  to  pay  in  kind, 
by  becoming  sacrificial  in  our  turn.  To  the  monetary 
remuneration  which  we  offer  our  Parliamentary  represent¬ 
atives  we  must,  as  a  community,  add  becoming  respect 
for  their  office,  and  heartfelt  appreciation  of  their  work. 
We  cannot  justly  make  moral  demands  upon  these  men 
while  we  withhold  from  them  our  moral  support.  We 
cannot  expect  them  to  take  their  position  seriously,  when 
we,  as  we  so  often  do,  indulge  in  cheap  and  shallow  wit 
at  their  expense,  forgetting  that  all  the  time  we  are 
discounting  them  we  are  really  belittling  ourselves.  More¬ 
over,  we  cannot  treat  our  Parliamentary  personnel  with 
scant  courtesy  without  bringing  the  entire  Parliamentary 
institution  itself  into  contempt ;  and  this  is  precisely 


126  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


what  we  have  done,  and  yet  we  marvel  at  the  want  of 
reverence  for  law  and  order,  the  flouting  of  authority,  the 
disrespect  for  tradition,  and  the  general  air  of  irresponsi¬ 
bility  prevailing  in  our  midst.  We  have  passed  on  to 
these  men  the  cares  of  government,  the  problems  of 
public  finance,  and  the  general  responsibility  of  safe¬ 
guarding  the  interests  and  well-being  of  the  State.  Surely, 
then,  the  least  that  can  be  expected  of  us  is  to  stand 
solidly  behind  them,  securing  them  as  far  as  possible 
from  all  needless  friction,  and  seeing  that  they  are  enabled 
to  do  their  work,  which  is  our  work,  with  the  maximum  of 
sympathy  and  the  minimum  of  strain.  Of  course,  it 
may  be  replied  that  for  the  extent  to  which  sympathy  and 
support  have  been  withheld  from  them,  and  for  any 
discredit  into  which  politics  generally  may  have  fallen, 
politicians  have  only  themselves  to  blame.  We  shall  be 
told  that  members  of  Parliament  have  produced  the 
impression  on  the  public  mind  that  all  they  are  out  for 
is  simply  to  better  their  own  position ;  and  that,  in  short, 
politics  is  simply  a  game  with  the  assets  of  the  country  as 
a  stake,  existing  only  to  be  exploited  in  the  interests  of 
those  in  power.  This  being  the  case,  and  the  period  of 
power  being  necessarily  not  only  limited  but  precarious, 
they  must  needs  secure  spoil  while  it  is  day,  for  the  night 
of  dissolution  cometh  when  no  man  can  gather  graft. 
Now  this  is  an  unfortunate  estimate,  and,  concerning  the 
majority  of  our  representatives,  let  us  not  hesitate  to  say 
most  cruelly  unjust.  It  is  a  hasty  and  careless  generaliza¬ 
tion  from  particular  and  unhappy  instances.  But  the 
worst  of  this  sort  of  reputation  is  that,  once  it  becomes 
established  in  the  public  mind,  it  begets  a  tendency  to 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  MINISTRY 


127 


live  down  to  its  level.  It  lowers  the  ideal  of  the  public 
service.  It  creates  an  atmosphere,  not  so  much  of 
suspicion  as  of  altogether  settled  conviction,  that  nothing 
is  to  be  looked  for  or  expected,  on  the  part  of  public  men, 
but  political  jobbery.  It  thus  tends  to  produce  the 
very  type  of  corrupt  adventurer  which  it  deplores,  who 
turns  positions  of  public  trust  into  means  for  promoting 
private  or  party  ends.  Once  it  becomes  generally 
understood  that  as  soon  as  a  man  gains  a  seat  in  Parliament 
it  is  a  foregone  conclusion  that  he  will  forget  his  steward¬ 
ship,  and  make  his  high  place  a  vantage-ground  for 
personal  enrichment ;  once  let  it  become  an  established 
tradition  that  the  temptations  of  office  are  admittedly 
irresistible,  that  no  man  is  expected  to  stand  out  against 
them,  that  in  the  public  mind  he  is  foredoomed  to  fall, 
that  once  he  enters  Parliament  the  general  and  regretful 
verdict  is  ‘  Alas,  another  good  man  gone  wrong  ’ — then,  of 
course,  there  will  be  nothing  for  it  on  the  part  of  weak  men 
but  to  fulfil  expectations,  based  only  on  the  cupidity  of 
human  nature  and  the  universal  lust  for  power.  Thus 
the  default  of  a  corrupt  few  begets  a  common  distrust  of 
the  many,  and  lowers  the  standard  of  public  expectation 
for  all.  Such  a  condition  of  things  applies,  it  will  be  seen, 
a  very  crucial  test  to  those  in  power.  Under  its  acid  the 
weak  man  will  keep  on  repeating  to  himself  the  lying 
formula,  *  Oh,  well,  they  all  do  it,  and  I  am  expected  to 
follow  suit/  which  he  forthwith  does,  and  casts  principle 
to  the  winds;  whereas  the  strong  man  takes  a  tighter 
grip  of  himself,  stiffens  his  back,  and  resolutely  refuses  to 
conform  to  a  custom  that  would  make  Parliamentary 
representation  and  parasitism  interchangeable  terms. 


128  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


We  are  hard  on  our  representative  men,  tardy  in  our 
acknowledgement  of  their  merits,  and  with  an  eye  trained 
to  the  finding  of  faults.  We  expect  great  things  of  them, 
and  then  withhold  the  atmosphere  of  confidence  in  which 
alone  great  things  become  possible.  We  do  not  take  them 
seriously.  They  are  the  butt  of  our  jokes,  in  season  and 
out  of  season.  They  have  always  been  regarded  as  fair 
game  for  the  caricaturist,  and  the  stock  subjects  for 
cartoon.  The  member  of  Parliament  shares  about 
equally  with  the  parson  in  providing  raw  material  for  the 
comic  artist,  who  makes  free  use  of  his  licence  to  lampoon. 
As  long  as  there  is  no  venom  in  this  featuring,  not  only  is 
no  harm  done,  but  often  a  powerful  lot  of  good.  Unfor¬ 
tunately,  however,  it  does  not  always  stop  at  this.  Vile 
aspersions  are  cast  on  public  men,  and  sinister  motives 
imputed.  Deadly  slanders  are  whispered  round,  and  the 
assassin’s  knife  is  plunged  into  reputations  by  a  man’s 
political  foes,  till — in  order  to  survive  in  the  walks  of 
public  fife,  and  keep  his  nature  sweet  and  wholesome — 
one  requires  to  possess  or  develop  an  epidermis  like  to 
some  scaly  old  saurian  of  prehistoric  times.  Frank  and 
free  criticism  no  upright  man  resents.  Indeed,  it  is  the 
thing  he  invites,  and  is  prepared  at  all  times  to  challenge. 
This  is  not  the  kind  of  thing  that  hurts.  It  is  the  pinprick 
policy  of  the  ‘  thousand  peering  littlenesses  ’  with  the 
poison  of  asps  beneath  their  tongues.  It  is  the  gross 
misrepresentation  that  no  amount  of  after-explanation 
can  correct.  It  is  the  lie  that  cannot  be  overtaken  and 
disproved — the  reckless  assertions  flung  around  by 
irresponsible  persons,  who  do  not  know  the  value  of 
words,  and  who,  when  remonstrated  with  on  account  of 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  MINISTRY 


129 


the  pain  they  cause,  retort  that  public  men  are  public 
property — by  which  they  mean  that  they  may  be  treated 
with  brutal  disregard,  all  their  feelings  violated,  and 
their  most  sacred  rights  trampled  underfoot.  These  are 
the  things  that  not  only  wound,  but  rankle,  and  fill  the 
victim  with  a  burning  sense  of  injustice,  which  he  is  often 
powerless  either  to  redress  or  avenge.  These  are  the 
things,  too,  that  tempt  high-spirited  men  to  turn  a  deaf 
ear  to  the  call  of  their  country  for  public  service,  and  to 
let  the  business  of  the  State  take  its  own  devious  course, 
rather  than  expose  themselves  to  misunderstanding  and 
abuse.  It  is  a  matter  for  profound  gratitude,  however, 
that,  in  spite  of  the  unpleasantness  that  so  often  attaches 
to  the  position,  so  many  men  of  sterling  worth  consent  to 
assume  the  cares  of  government  in  addition  to  their  own. 
But  it  is  a  thankless  job  at  best,  and  he  who  goes  in 
for  it  in  the  hope  that  by  firm  adherence  to  principle 
and  unswerving  allegiance  to  all  that  is  highest  and 
best,  he  is  going  to  become  the  people’s  darling,  and 
draw  upon  himself  the  blessings  of  the  crowd,  had  better 
be  disillusioned  at  the  outset.  Let  him  be  assured  that 
for  any  satisfaction  to  be  derived  from  the  faithful 
discharge  of  duty  he  will  have  to  look  within  his  own 
breast ;  and  that  the  supreme  thing,  compared  with  which 
everything  else  is  but  dust  and  chaff,  is  to  stand  right 
with  himself,  no  matter  what  the  many-headed  beast  of 
popular  opinion  may  think  or  say.  The  plaudit  of  the 
crowd  is  as  fickle  as  the  wind,  as  changeful  as  the  changing 
sea.  A  man  may  go  ninety-nine  miles  out  of  a  hundred 
with  those  who  are  clamouring  for  some  kind  of  social  or 
industrial  reform  ;  but  if  he  puts  down  his  foot  and 
9 


130 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


declines  to  go  the  hundredth,  they  will  forget  all  that 
he  has  done.  They  will  turn  and  rend  him  in  the 
fierceness  of  their  rage,  and  curse  him  by  all  their  gods, 
till  he  who  was  regarded  as  a  deity  in  the  morning,  to  be 
crowned  with  flowers,  is  held  to  be  a  devil  in  the  evening, 
to  be  pelted  with  stones. 

In  the  name  of  Christ  and  His  Church,  I  claim,  on 
behalf  of  those  who  are  at  the  helm  of  affairs,  the  prayers 
and  sympathies  of  all  who  have  the  future  welfare  of  our 
empire  at  heart.  There  are  grave  problems,  material  as 
well  as  moral,  to  be  faced  ;  and  they  are  strangely  inter¬ 
woven.  We  have  ordained  these  men  to  the  task  of 
assisting  in  their  solution,  and  we  have  no  right  to  send 
them  forth  and  then  withhold  from  them  our  sympathy 
and  support.  They  are  not  infallible.  Many  of  them, 
as  must  happen  under  a  democratic  system  of  government, 
have  not  had  the  educational  advantages  of  those  whom 
they  have  been  selected  to  represent.  In  many  instances 
they  have  had  to  depend  upon  the  position  and  work  to 
which  they  have  been  sent,  to  educate  them  into  any  kind 
of  legislative  or  administrative  efficiency.  It  is  the 
defect  of  the  system  that,  in  choosing  men  from  among 
the  people,  the  choice  must  fall  at  times  on  candidates 
who,  when  elected,  find  themselves  for  the  first  time  in 
their  lives  loaded  up  with  grave  responsibility.  Many 
of  them  have  hitherto  only  had  to  manage  their 
small  farm  or  store,  where  at  the  most  they  have 
had  to  handle  but  a  few  hundred  pounds.  Suddenly, 
however,  they  are  called  upon  to  deal  in  hundreds 
of  thousands.  To  a  conscientious  man  this  must 
become  a  matter  of  very  grave  concern.  He  recognizes 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  MINISTRY 


131 

that  as  a  member  of  Parliament  he  is  a  trustee 
of  the  people’s  money  ;  and  that,  even  if  they  did  not 
require  of  him  a  strict  account  of  his  stewardship,  he 
would  require  it  of  himself.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  this  responsibility,  too  great  for  those  who  have 
never  been  trained  to  it,  has  loaded  many  of  our  best 
public  men  above  the  breaking  strain.  It  is  the  duty  of  us 
all  to  surround  our  representatives  who  are  conscientiously 
aiming  at  great  and  worthy  corporate  ends,  with  an 
atmosphere  of  friendliness  in  which  alone  they  can  do 
their  best  work,  instead  of  making  them  the  marks  for 
the  slings  and  arrows  of  a  criticism  that  is  seldom  con¬ 
structive,  but  destructive  and  depreciatory  to  a  degree 
that  frequently  breaks  them  down  and  kills  them  off 
before  their  time. 


132  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


3 

The  Function  of  Teaching 
Part  I 

'  He  that  teacheth,  on  teaching.' — Rom.  xii.  7. 

The  supreme  importance  of  the  teaching  function 
arises  from  the  necessity  for  right  direction  and  con¬ 
trol  in  the  region  of  thought.  Indeed,  the  wa}/  out  from  much 
of  our  mental  anxiety  and  nervous  irritability,  as  well  as 
of  our  spiritual  inefficiency,  lies  in  the  direction  of  greater 
mental  self-discipline  and  pre-occupation  of  mind. 
Mastery  in  the  marshalling  of  our  thoughts  and  the 
training  of  them  on  to  great  themes  consonant  with  the 
greatness  of  the  mind  itself,  is  an  acquirement  within 
reach  of  us  all.  For  although  the  outer  world  of  men  and 
things  has  been  created  for  us,  we  may  create  the  inner 
world  of  thought  for  ourselves.  Every  man  may  thus 
possess  a  city  of  refuge  within,  into  which  he  can  flee  at 
will,  to  find  sanctuary  amid  high  thoughts  and  fair 
imaginations  from  the  brawling  of  the  multitude  or  the 
dust  and  din  of  the  street. 

It  is  the  first  business  of  the  moral  teacher  to  bring 
before  his  pupils  those  great  truths  whose  counterparts 
already  exist  in  their  minds,  and  wait  for  their  completion 
by  the  presentation  of  their  objective  correlates.  The 
mind  of  man  and  the  revealed  thought  of  God  presuppose 
one  another,  and  neither  without  the  other  can  reach  its 
divinely  appointed  end.  What  light  is  to  the  eye,  what 
sound  is  to  the  ear,  that  truth  is  to  the  mind.  The 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


133 


unperverted  mind  thirsts  for  truth  as  the  hunted  stag 
for  the  water-brook.  ‘  Every  one/  says  Christ,  *  that  is 
of  the  truth  heareth  My  voice/  That  means  that  those 
who  live  in  the  truth  instinctively  recognize  it  when 
presented. 

In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  read  '  The  disciples 
continued  in  the  apostles’  doctrine.’  This  suggests 
culture  after  conversion,  so  that  clearly,  conversion  is  not 
everything.  We  must  beware  of  confounding  beginnings 
with  ends.  Conversion  is  but  initiation,  it  must  never 
be  regarded  as  synonymous  with  salvation.  Conversion 
is  a  crisis  which  may  occupy  but  one  brief  moment ; 
salvation  is  a  process  running  on  concurrently  with  life, 
and  the  end  of  which  is  not  yet.  It  is  a  process,  more¬ 
over,  that  may  be  hastened,  retarded,  or  even  arrested  ; 
and  is  a  much  greater  and  grander  thing  than  many  even 
Christian  people  suppose.  As  employed  by  Christ  and 
His  apostles  it  is  no  mere  negative  deliverance,  it  is  rich 
in  positive  elements,  the  unfolding  of  which  will  demand 
the  eternities  for  their  field,  and  the  infinities  for  their 
range — elements  which  can  in  no  wise  be  shut  up  and 
exhausted  within  the  narrow  limitations  of  time. 

Now  it  was  of  paramount  importance  that  these  first 
subjects  of  the  new  kingdom  should  be  fully  instructed  as 
to  the  nature  of  their  citizenship,  as  well  as  the 
privileges  and  obligations  which  its  acceptance  involved. 
All  their  old  ideals  had  to  go  into  liquidation  and  become 
reconstructed  around  a  new  centre.  They  had  to  jettison 
a  vast  amount  of  mental  cargo  and  unlearn  a  great  many 
things,  before  the  positive  work  of  Christian  education 
could  commence.  If  they  were  to  become  the  means  of 


134  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


propagating  the  new  kingdom,  then  clearly  they  must  be 
so  instructed  as  to  be  able,  as  Paul  said,  to  give  every  man 
a  reason  for  the  hope  that  was  in  them.  So  that  from 
the  beginning  it  was  recognized  that  the  intellect  had  its 
claims  which  could  not  safely  be  ignored.  It  required  to 
be  furnished  with  material  which  it  could  fashion  into  a 
system  of  thought.  We  cannot  live  on  our  emotions, 
nor  could  a  mere  set  of  emotions  be  transmitted. 

But  one  of  the  fundamental  conditions  of  Christian 
citizenship  is  that  it  shall  be  passed  on.  Now  we  cannot 
pass  a  thing  on  intelligently  unless  we  ourselves  have  a 
mental  grip  of  it.  As  long  as  it  merely  exists  in  the  mind 
without  form  and  void,  it  can  neither  satisfy  us  nor 
persuade  others.  While  truth  remains  in  the  abstract 
its  currency  is  impeded.  It  must  assume  form  and  be 
stated  in  intelligible  terms  before  it  can  pass  from  man  to 
man  or  from  mind  to  mind.  Here  is  where  the  function 
of  the  teacher  comes  in.  He  gives  the  rationale  of 
the  process  as  far  as  that  can  be  supplied.  Of  course 
there  will  always  be  unknown  quantities  that  refuse  to 
analyse,  indeed,  if  there  were  not,  we  might  well  suspect 
a  religion  thus  devoid  of  mystery,  and  dismiss  it  as  a  man¬ 
made  thing.  But  while  it  has  heights  and  depths  into 
which  it  shades  off  and  baffles  the  intelligence  of  even 
angel  minds,  there  are  elements  which  human  intelligence 
can  grasp  and  appreciate,  because,  as  we  have  seen, 
their  counterparts  have  been  deeply  wrought  into  the 
mental  and  moral  constitution  of  man.  There  will  thus 
always  be  a  place  for  the  teacher,  but  alas  !  there  has  not 
always  been  a  teacher  for  the  place,  and  the  failure  of  this 
function  in  the  Church  must  account  for  the  low  and 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


135 


rudimentary  types  of  Christianity  which  so  abundantly 
prevail.  They  are  the  product  of  an  atmosphere 
exhausted  of  religious  instruction. 

These  are  the  types  which  so  readily  adopt  any  new 
doctrinal  craze.  It  does  not  matter  what  wild  and  weird 
theory  may  be  advanced,  there  will  always  be  some  people 
who  will  subscribe  to  it.  Uninstructed  in  the  things 
pertaining  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  they  are  caught  by 
every  wind  and  wave  of  doctrine,  they  are  of  the  opinion 
of  the  last  speaker,  and  the  easy  victims  of  the  latest 
fad.  Of  course  to  continue  in  the  apostles’  doctrine 
implies  more  than  the  mere  intellectual  perception  and 
reception  of  the  truth,  it  means  its  whole-hearted  assimila¬ 
tion  and  translation  into  life  and  character.  Herein  he 
all  the  wondrous  possibilities  of  development  to  which  the 
higher  life  is  heir. 

All  the  fine  emotions  that  are  kindled  at  conversion 
are  thus  intended  to  be  taken  up  into  the  realm  of  our 
thinking,  and  there  woven  by  the  hand  of  a  resolute 
purpose  into  the  permanent  structure  of  our  character, 
which  in  its  turn  will  become  the  determining  factor 
of  destiny.  Who  will  dare  to  limit  the  possibilities  thus 
enfolded  in  the  new-born  soul  ?  Has  it  not  been  born 
again  for  deathless  being,  and  with  eternal  life  shall  there 
not  be  eternal  development,  and  ever-growing  similarity 
to  God  ? 

We  need  not  fear  to  apply  the  principle  of  evolution 
to  the  realm  of  spiritual  being,  for  this  is  the  law  that 
governs  all  life,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest.  Let  us 
then  continue  patiently  at  school,  passing  from  stage  to 
stage  of  spiritual  attainment,  under  the  culture  of  that 


136  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


*  Spirit  who  searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things 
of  God/  What  the  ultimate  goal  may  be,  who  shall  say  ! 
For  *  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  but  when 
He  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him 
as  He  is/ 

In  connection  with  the  teaching  function  to  which  the 
apostle  here  refers,  we  have  already  seen  the  great  under¬ 
lying  assumption  implicit  in  this  passage,  which  is  that 
the  Church  needs  instruction  which  it  is  the  express 
function  of  the  teacher  to  furnish.  Immediately  a  child 
is  bom  into  the  world,  if  not  sooner,  its  education  begins. 
I  say,  if  not  sooner,  for  there  are  many  psychologists 
who  believe  in  the  possibility  of  so  adjusting  prenatal 
conditions  that  the  child  may  start  the  quest  for  know¬ 
ledge  and  the  battle  of  life  with  a  transmitted  advantage 
in  the  way  of  mental  and  moral  equipment,  due  entirely 
to  the  atmosphere  of  thought  and  feeling  in  which  the 
mother  has  chosen  to  dwell.  But  without  denying  or 
asserting  this,  let  it  be  said  that  for  all  practical  purposes 
the  child’s  education  commences  at  birth,  and  it  very 
speedily  begins  to  learn.  It  looks  and  listens,  it  touches 
and  tastes,  till  it  gradually  grows  accustomed  to  the 
world  of  persons  and  things  into  which  it  has  been  born. 
The  impressions  it  receives  sink  into  its  receptive  mind, 
so  that  by  the  time  its  reflective  faculties  wake  up,  its 
perceptive  powers  have  already  stored  up  countless 
experiences  from  which  the  young  mind  forms  its  con¬ 
clusions.  Thus  long  before  its  formal  education  has 
commenced  it  has  been  learning  from  its  elders  and  its 
surroundings,  so  that  when  its  tutors  come  upon  the 
field  they  discover  that  field  already  in  possession,  so 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


137 


that  they  have  by  no  means  virgin  soil  in  which  to  work. 
Thenceforth  almost  everything  depends  on  how  the  boy 
or  girl  is  handled,  as  to  what  its  education  will  mean. 
How  a  lad  is  taught  to  use  his  perceptives  and  reflectives 
will,  of  course,  turn  very  largely  on  the  quality  of  his 
teachers  and  the  ideal  of  education  that  they  hold. 
Indeed,  our  children  are  frequently  made  or  marred  for 
life  entirely  by  their  school  treatment  during  these  plastic 
years.  Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  there  is  no  higher 
or  more  sacred  function  than  that  of  the  teacher.  In 
spite  of  all  appearances,  it  is  the  teacher  who  shapes  the 
course  of  history.  Ideas  rule  the  world,  and  what  is 
thought  to-day  is  wrought  to-morrow.  Hence  the 
importance  that  attaches  to  education,  and  the  necessity 
that  it  should  be  in  the  hands  of  men  and  women  of  the 
highest  type,  if  our  children  are  to  grow  up  with  a  proper 
knowledge  of  the  world  in  which  they  live,  its  history, 
its  laws  and  forces,  its  calls  and  claims  upon  their  service, 
and  the  contribution  they  are  required  to  make  to  the 
mental,  moral,  and  material  wellbeing  of  their  time. 
The  end  of  all  education  is  of  course  conduct,  and  unless 
it  issues  in  wiser  and  better  reasoned  behaviour  it  is  but 
a  broken  road.  Now  the  importance  of  all  that  we  have 
been  saying  will  be  fully  and  frankly  conceded  in  its 
relation  to  the  child  as  it  is  born  into  the  kingdom  of 
man.  But  when  we  come  to  the  question  of  birth  into 
the  kingdom  of  God,  the  importance  becomes  heightened 
a  millionfold.  Whatever  our  theory  may  be  as  to  the 
necessity  for  education  in  divine  truth,  our  practice 
hopelessly  breaks  down.  But  if  the  new  birth  means 
anything,  it  means  the  awakening  of  a  new  set  of  faculties 


138  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


which  are  related  to  a  correspondingly  new  set  of  facts  and 
forces — a  world  of  thought  and  feeling,  of  sight  and  sound, 
which  eye  has  not  seen  nor  ear  heard  nor  the  unregenerate 
heart  conceived — a  world  whose  laws  and  forces  are  as 
real  and  realizable  as  any  with  which  our  bodily  senses 
have  to  do.  Now,  clearly,  it  cannot  be  enough  merely 
to  be  bom  into  this  new  world.  To  what  end  have  these 
new  and  wondrous  faculties  been  unsealed  if  not  to  find 
their  correlates  ?  and  if  ignorance  pertaining  to  the  kingdom 
of  man  be  regarded  not  only  as  a  disqualification  but  as 
a  disgrace,  how  can  we  justify  our  failure  to  train  our 
spiritual  perceptions  into  their  appropriate  field,  and 
thus  come  to  a  knowledge  as  personal  and  progressive  of 
that  world  as  we  do  of  this  ?  Measured  by  our  years  in 
the  kingdom  of  God  we  ought  many  of  us  to  be  teachers  ; 
measured  by  our  attainments  we  ought  to  be  committed 
to  some  home  for  spiritual  defectives.  The  inmates  of 
institutions  for  mental  treatment,  of  course,  are  blame¬ 
less,  for  their  arrested  development  is  due  to  congenital 
defect.  But  there  are  no  congenital  defectives  among 
the  twice-bom.  Wherever  there  is  arrested  develop¬ 
ment  in  the  spiritual  realm  it  is  self-induced  and  there¬ 
fore  without  excuse.  The  method  by  which  we  come 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  physical  world  need  not  be 
renounced  when  we  come  to  deal  with  the  spiritual  realm. 
Indeed,  when  you  come  to  think  of  it,  the  method  is  and 
must  be  the  same,  though  the  instrument  may  differ. 
The  instruments  of  our  physical  knowledge  are  our  five 
senses,  the  instrument  of  spiritual  knowledge  is  our 
faith,  a  name  given  to  a  kind  of  fivefold  spiritual  super¬ 
sense  by  which  we  arrive  at  our  experience  of  the 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


139 


things  which  lie  beyond  the  range  of  our  merely  physical 
ken.  But  these  facts  of  the  spiritual  order,  like  those 
of  the  physical,  have  a  twofold  meaning.  They  are  the 
expression  of  both  mind  and  heart,  so  that  to  gain  access 
to  them  and  induce  them  to  yield  up  their  sacramental 
meaning  is  to  achieve  a  double  result.  It  brings  us  face 
to  face  with  the  Infinite  Personality  who  dwells  behind 
all  mere  forms  and  semblances  of  life,  and  relates  us  to 
the  ‘  Life  Indeed.’  It  assures  us  that  behind  all  things 
there  is  order  and  not  chaos,  purpose  and  not  caprice, 
and  that  spite  of  all  setbacks  and  apparent  retrogressions 
all  things  are  being  carried  grandly  forward  to  the  goal 
of  God’s  infinite  desire,  so  that  we  endure  '  as  seeing  Him 
who  is  invisible.’  The  visible  thus  becomes  our  conductor 
to  the  invisible,  the  material  is  the  thoroughfare  to  the 
spiritual.  That  we  frequently  get  detained  in  it  is  not 
its  fault  but  our  own.  There  is  not  a  single  visible 
object  that  is  not  the  expression  of  an  invisible  force 
which  has  no  other  way,  in  our  present  state  of  being, 
of  reporting  itself  to  our  consciousness  excepting  by 
producing  visible,  audible,  or  tangible  effects — that  is 
by  setting  up  certain  vibrations  which,  through  stimulat¬ 
ing  our  sensory  nerves,  convey  their  impressions  to  our 
minds.  The  invisible  has  need  of  the  visible,  for  it  is 
only  through  the  visible  that  its  presence  can  be  detected 
or  proved.  Take  the  force  of  gravity,  for  example.  It 
is  operating  through  every  square  inch  of  space,  but  for 
the  knowledge  of  its  presence  and  power  we  are  absolutely 
dependent  on  the  things  we  see.  For  example,  if  some 
one  were  to  assert  that  between  my  book-rest  and  the 
floor  the  law  of  gravitation  was  suspended,  how  could  we 


i4o  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


refute  it  ?  There  is  but  one  way,  and  that  is  by  introduc¬ 
ing  a  visible  object  between  the  desk  and  the  floor  and 
releasing  it.  Then  will  the  invisible  force  visibly 
demonstrate  its  power.  In  the  same  way  magnetism  is 
invisible,  and  the  only  method  of  proving  its  presence 
is  to  introduce  an  affinity  into  the  field  of  its  attractive 
power  and  to  watch  how  it  behaves.  Steam  is  invisible, 
and  cannot  prove  its  presence  but  by  its  output  in  the 
way  of  visible  effects.  Life  is  invisible,  and  we  can  only 
detect  its  presence  by  its  visible  phenomena.  Indeed 
the  visible  seems  to  be  everywhere  but  the  working 
manifestation  of  the  invisible,  and  it  is  to  this  invisible 
that  we  are  introduced  by  the  crisis  of  the  new  birth.  Its 
forces  are  related  to  our  faith  nerve,  just  as  the  force  of 
light  is  related  to  our  optic  nerve,  or  that  of  sound  to 
our  auditory  nerve.  It  is  by  training  our  physical  senses 
that  we  come  to  the  power  of  accurate  observation,  and 
thus  to  our  science  of  the  physical  order,  so  by  the  train¬ 
ing  of  our  spiritual  senses  do  we  collect  and  arrange  our 
reports  from  the  spiritual  order  and  build  up  our  science 
of  things  unseen.  The  more  numerous  the  facts  elicited 
and  recorded,  the  wider  will  be  the  generalizations  that 
can  be  made,  and  the  richer  the  experience  enjoyed. 
But  the  enjoyment  of  the  experience  does  not  depend  in 
any  way  upon  the  power  to  express  it  in  terms  of  thought. 
Of  course,  it  is  very  pleasing  to  have  our  feelings  and 
thoughts  expressed  for  us  in  such  a  fashion,  but  for 
every  one  who  can  thus  express  them  there  are  millions 
who  possess  them,  and  rejoice  in  them  ‘  with  joy  unspeak¬ 
able  and  full  of  glory/  The  great  thing  is  to  keep 
ourselves  under  training,  cultivating  the  teachable 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


141 

disposition,  the  childlike  openness  of  mind  and  heart,  the 
willingness  to  accept  truth  from  whatever  quarter  it 
may  come,  and  to  give  it  house  room  and  hospitality.  If, 
as  we  have  seen,  every  dead  piece  of  matter  represents 
and  expresses  some  invisible  force,  what  possibilities 
of  expression  must  be  open  to  living  mind  !  Thus  to 
express  truth,  to  embody  it  in  life,  character,  and  con¬ 
duct,  to  be  transmitters  of  its  light  and  life  to  those  who 
sit  in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death,  this  is  the  end 
for  which  we  have  been  born  again.  Thus  and  thus  only 
can  we  vindicate  our  claim  to  be  followers  of  Him  who 
declared  ‘  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause  came 
I  into  the  world,  that  I  might  bear  witness  unto  the  truth.' 

The  inner  world  of  our  thinking  must  inevitably  be¬ 
come  creative  of  an  outer  world  of  fact  upon  which  it 
cannot  but  react.  We  are  what  we  think  ;  we  are  what 
we  would  be  if  we  could.  Nothing  is  in  heaven  or  on 
the  earth  or  in  the  waters  under  the  earth  that  was  not 
first  of  all  a  thought,  and  that  is  why  it  can  be  resolved 
back  into  terms  of  thought.  According  to  this  view  the 
whole  universe  is  a  literature  ;  it  is  the  thought  of  God 
expressed  in  terms  of  matter  and  motion.  So  that  matter 
and  motion,  laws  and  forces,  colour  and  form  rightly 
regarded,  represent  the  '  Word  of  God  '  as  far  as  such 
a  Word  can  articulate  the  thought  of  His  mind  and  the 
feeling  of  His  heart.  This  is  no  mere  modern  view  of  the 
universe.  The  ancients  held  it  as  a  sacred  article  of  their 
faith,  and  it  is  finely  endorsed  by  the  Psalmist  in  the 
memorable  words,  ‘  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
God  ;  and  the  firmament  sheweth  His  handiwork.  Day 
unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and  night  unto  night  sheweth 


142 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


knowledge.  There  is  no  speech  nor  language ;  their 
voice  cannot  he  heard.'  Thus  to  get  nature  to  yield  up 
her  secret  is  to  know  the  mind  of  God.  Form,  colour, 
fragrance,  feeling,  flavour,  sound,  are  all  tones  of  His 
voice,  parts  of  His  speech,  methods  by  which  He  would 
unfold  Himself  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  man.  Hence 
what  to  some  might  seem  a  poet’s  exaggeration  in 
Tennyson’s  well-known  lines  is  simple,  sober  fact. 

Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 

I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies, 

I  hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand, 

Little  flower — but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 

I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is. 

Paul  said  the  same  thing  in  different  words  when  he 
wrote,  *  The  invisible  things  of  Him  since  the  creation 
of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  perceived  through 
the  things  that  are  made,  even  His  everlasting  power 
and  divinity.’  From  the  stability  of  the  structure  with 
all  its  wondrous  laws,  its  infinitely  wise  adaptations,  its 
gracious  utilities,  we  pass  inevitably  by  a  logic  that  is 
irresistible  to  the  stability  of  the  character,  and  the  wisdom 
of  the  mind,  whose  creative  thought  thus  expresses 
itself  in  all  the  multitudinous  forms  of  strength  and 
beauty,  from  the  solid  mountain  standing  fast  in  its  quiet 
strength  to  the  frail  snowdrop  that  trembles  at  its  foot. 
These  are  the  terms  in  which  God  thinks,  and  the  quality 
of  His  thinking  stands  expressed  in  His  works.  The 
indivisible  unity  of  the  Divine  nature  becomes  in  Creation 
what  we  understand  by  the  term  ‘  Universe.’  That  is 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


143 


God’s  unity  translated  into  cosmic  terms,  and  it  en¬ 
courages  us  to  look  forward  to  a  period  when  all  the 
discords  and  dualities  of  time  shall  have  worked  them¬ 
selves  out,  and  resolved  themselves  back  into 

That  God  who  ever  lives  and  loves. 

But  just  as,  in  the  case  of  the  Creator,  this  innermost 
thought  is  evinced  by  His  work,  so  with  the  creature, 
as  he  thinks  so  he  is,  and  as  he  is  so  he  does.  Any  defect 
in  the  proper  sense  of  proportion  or  perspective  within 
the  mind  will  register  itself  in  our  output  in  the  way  of 
words  and  work.  There  is  thus  a  system  of  double  entry 
kept,  because  the  brain  holds  the  record  mysteriously 
stored  of  all  the  mental  processes  in  which  it  has  been 
employed.  By  what  mental  physiologists  term  ‘  brain- 
tracks  *  the  paths  of  thought  are  visibly  delineated  in  the 
brain-structure  itself,  so  that  it  presents  an  internal 
road-map  of  our  thinking.  So  fearfully  and  wonder¬ 
fully  are  we  made  that  so  immaterial  and  elusive  a  thing 
as  a  thought  can  record  its  ramifications  from  brain- 
centre  to  brain-centre  in  distinctly  traceable  lines,  so 
that  the  history  of  a  man’s  thinking,  whether  as  to  its 
quality  or  quantity,  its  simplicity  or  complexity,  its 
occasional  character  or  its  persistence,  its  lethargy  or  its 
intensity,  stands  disclosed  to  the  trained  and  instructed 
eye.  Here,  then,  within  one’s  own  personality,  according 
to  the  most  advanced  science,  is  a  judgement-book  com¬ 
piled,  in  which  all  the  things  are  written  which  have  been 
thought  and  purposed,  though  in  many  instances  they 
may  never  have  found  expression  in  deeds.  This  auto¬ 
registration  process  makes  every  man  his  own  recording 


144  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


angel,  the  story  of  his  thought-life  being  kept  by  an 
unerring  and  automatic  system  of  stenography,  so  that 
every  voluntary  action  in  which  the  will  has  been  engaged 
is  recorded  even  before  it  has  been  done  into  history. 
This  surely  must  be  the  ground  of  Christ’s  teaching  that 
there  is  no  difference  between  the  will  to  transgress  and 
actual  transgression  itself,  so  that  he  who  has  willed  in 
the  illicit  direction,  though  he  may  have  been  thwarted 
in  his  purpose,  is  held  to  be  guilty  of  trespass,  and  to  have 
done  the  forbidden  thing  ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  he 
who  has  willed  in  the  right  direction,  but  has  been  de¬ 
feated,  is  credited  with  the  good  that  he  would  have  done. 

Now  I  have  been  led  to  speak  thus  on  the  relation 
between  our  thinking  and  our  character  in  the  hope  that  I 
may  induce  a  greater  mental  oversight  and  self-control.  If 
I  could  get  my  readers  to  resolve  that  they  would  quietly 
think  for  a  few  moments  every  day  on  some  great  truth,  it 
would  make  all  the  difference  between  shallowness  and 
depth  in  their  religious  life.  Thus  periodically  to  detach 
the  mind  from  the  petty  details  of  life  and  let  it  sink  into 
the  depths  of  some  great  thought  of  life  itself,  till  it  be¬ 
comes  saturated  with  it,  and,  indeed,  becomes  so  one 
with  it  as  to  swing  responsive  to  its  heaving  tides,  is  to 
find  an  inner  contentment  and  repose  that  nothing  out¬ 
ward  can  ever  vex  or  disturb.  To  start  the  day  thus, 
spending  the  first  few  conscious  moments  in  the  contem¬ 
plation  of  any  great  elevating  theme,  the  Fatherhood 
of  God,  the  Brotherhood  of  Christ,  the  universal  Spirit, 
the  majesty  of  law,  the  sanctity  of  life,  the  veracity  of 
nature,  the  claims  of  conscience,  the  imperatives  of  duty, 
and  underlying  all,  upholding  all,  suffusing  all,  the  great 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


145 


and  solemn  eternity  which  everywhere  underspreads 
the  things  we  touch  and  see,  this  is  to  escape  from  the 
fetters  of  the  local  and  find  the  freedom  of  the  universal 
to  which  our  spirits  belong,  out  of  which  they  have  come, 
and  into  which  they  haste.  Here  too  lies  the  cure  for 
all  fretfulness,  irritability  and  want  of  trust,  in  these 
healing  restful  regions  of  quiet  thought  concerning  God 
and  things  unseen.  The  reason  that  we  are  so  neurotic 
is  not  physical  but  spiritual.  We  have  not  acquired 
control  in  the  region  of  thought,  but  are  the  victims  of 
emotion.  Our  lives  are  too  frequently  swept  by  passion, 
too  seldom  held  in  poise  by  prayer.  The  cure  for  most 
of  our  modern  ills  lies  so  near  to  our  hand  as  to  be  over¬ 
looked.  At  any  moment  we  can  effect  our  escape  from 
the  tyranny  of  time  by  thinking  ourselves  into  the 
eternal.  This  is  a  change  of  air  and  scene  that  means 
health  to  both  body  and  soul.  Life  is  never  blase  to  the 
dweller  in  two  worlds.  When  the  roots  of  our  being  are 
struck  deep  into  the  eternities,  we  can  laugh  at  the 
droughts  of  time.  Those  waters  of  quietness  are  accessi¬ 
ble  to  us  all,  and  as  we  drink  we  forget  our  care.  We 
realize  that  we  are  other  than  mere  children  of  time,  that 
we  are  related  to  the  eternal  order,  and  that  our  destinies 
are  linked  with  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come. 


10 


% 


146  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


The  Function  of  Teaching 
Part  II 

In  the  midst  of  working  at  the  previous  chapter  the 
call  came  from  the  Student  Christian  Movement  for 
world-prayer  that  the  nations  of  the  earth  might  be 
federated  in  the  bond  of  a  permanent  peace.  Now  we 
have  many  calls  to  prayer  from  time  to  time,  but  this, 
from  University  students  the  whole  world  round,  possesses 
a  character  and  a  significance  all  its  own.  Back  of  it 
you  have  to  postulate  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the 
keenest  intellects  of  our  time,  those  whose  impact  upon 
the  thought-life  of  the  world  will  do  more  than  any  other 
merely  human  force  to  shape  the  history  of  their  own 
time,  and  through  it  the  generations  that  are  to  come.  As 
the  world  thinks  so  it  is,  and  as  it  is  so  it  does.  The 
Spanish  proverb  is  as  true  of  nations  as  of  individuals, 
*  Sow  a  thought  reap  an  act/  Everything  can  be  resolved 
back  into  terms  of  thought.  Without  thought  was  not 
anything  made  that  was  made.  The  significance  of  a 
thing  consists  in  the  thought  that  dwells  behind  it,  that 
throbs  through  it,  and  of  which  it  is  but  an  expression 
and  effect.  Until  we  have  penetrated  to  this  inner  and 
sacramental  meaning  of  things  we  are  mere  outsiders,  or 
at  best  in  the  kindergarten  stage  of  education. 

Kepler  said  long  ago  that  all  our  human  science  was 
simply  a  thinking  of  God’s  thoughts  after  Him.  According 
to  this  view,  the  whole  universe  is  an  illuminated  literature, 
a  pulsing,  beating,  burning  word  of  God.  Only  to  the 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


147 


morally  pure  and  lowly  in  mind  does  the  universe 
surrender  its  secret. 

Nature  is  the  expression,  not  only  of  mind,  but  of  heart, 
and  the  mental  is  everywhere  subordinate  to  the  moral, 
and  therefore  must  be  construed  through  it  and  by  means 
of  it  to  be  rightly  understood.  This  accounts  for  the 
position  so  stoutly  maintained  by  Professor  Huxley  when 
he  said  :  '  True  science  and  true  religion  are  twin  sisters, 
and  the  separation  of  either  from  the  other  is  sure  to 
prove  the  death  of  both.  Science  prospers  exactly  in 
proportion  as  it  is  religious,  and  religion  flourishes  in 
exact  proportion  to  the  scientific  depth  and  firmness  of 
its  basis.  The  great  deeds  of  philosophers  have  been 
less  the  fruit  of  their  intellect  than  of  the  direction  of  that 
intellect  by  an  eminently  religious  tone  of  mind.  Truth 
has  yielded  herself  rather  to  their  patience,  their  love, 
their  single-heartedness,  their  self-denial,  than  to  their 
logical  acumen.’ 

Even  the  microscope  and  the  telescope  yield  different 
results  according  to  the  moral  character  of  the  observers. 
What  it  means,  therefore,  for  the  future  of  science,  to  say 
nothing  of  religion,  when  the  best  thought  and  the  ripest 
scholarship  are  definitely  Christian,  can  be  more  easily 
imagined  than  foretold.  It  is  the  thinkers  who  hold  the 
keys  of  the  new  era  and  who  will  determine  whether  it 
shall  be  iron,  lead,  or  gold.  Certainly  no  age  can  reach 
a  higher  level  than  that  of  the  thought  of  its  highest  men. 
Hence  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  the  great  seats 
and  centres  of  learning  throughout  the  world,  from  Japan 
in  the  East  to  America  in  the  West,  thus  annually 
through  their  myriads  of  students  call  us  to  prayer. 


148  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


That  we  may  see  the  golden  thread  of  a  divine  purpose 
running  through  the  dark  pattern  woven  by  the  war  ; 
that  we  may  not  give  way  to  hysteria  or  pessimistic 
despair,  but  possess  our  souls  in  patience  as  we  wait  the 
clearer  light, — these  are  the  objects  for  which  we  as 
Churches  are  called  to  pray. 

Now  to  those  who  can  recall  the  attitude  of  scientific 
men  and  the  atmosphere  of  university  life  in  the  seventies 
and  eighties,  this  world-wide  student  movement,  encour¬ 
aged  as  it  is  by  hundreds  of  university  professors,  cannot 
fail  to  appear  as  one  of  the  most  potent  of  the  plastic 
forces  of  the  century.  What  it  means  for  the  Christian 
Church,  and,  through  the  Church,  for  the  world,  he  would 
be  a  bold  man  who  would  venture  to  measure  or  forecast. 
St.  Paul,  himself  a  university  man,  would  have  hailed 
such  a  movement  with  unspeakable  joy.  It  was  the  one 
thing  needful,  the  thing  at  which  he  aimed,  to  rescue  the 
intellectualism  of  his  day  from  the  barren  waste  of 
fruitless  debate  in  which  it  had  become  lost,  and  to  link 
it  up  with  the  fertilizing  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  If  he 
could  only  have  baptized  the  intellectual  forces  of  that 
ancient  world  into  the  spirit  of  the  Cross  they  would  have 
been  born  again  to  a  vivid  and  virile  life,  a  life  which 
would  have  reacted  with  irresistible  dynamic  against 
every  hostile  cult — atheistic,  materialistic,  agnostic, 
philosophic,  or  theosophic — which  exalted  itself  against 
the  Crucified.  This  university  student  movement  then 
represents  the  wedlock  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  life,  thus 
constituting  one  of  the  most  powerful  combines  against 
the  kingdom  of  darkness  that  has  ever  been  formed. 
As  long  as  mind  and  heart  can  be  kept  apart  the  world 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


149 


will  be  torn  with  strife.  From  the  very  first  the  spirit 
of  evil  has  sought  to  corner,  and  by  cornering  to  pervert, 
the  world’s  thinking  power.  This  in  its  final  analysis  is 
the  essence  of  the  first  temptation.  Pushing  behind  and 
beneath  all  the  symbolism  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  the  one 
clear  fact  which  confronts  us  is  the  injection  by  the 
tempter  of  mental  disquiet  into  the  woman’s  mind,  by 
putting  a  note  of  interrogation  after  what  hitherto  had 
been  an  unquestioned  fact.  He  made  her  doubt  as  to 
the  gracious  intent  of  the  divine  prohibition.  He 
suggested  that  the  limitation  placed  on  human  freedom 
had  behind  it  a  sinister  motive  ;  that  it  was  imposed  to 
check  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  thus  keeping  the  race  in 
ignorance  ;  and  by  the  successful  insinuation  of  this 
doubt  into  the  mind  of  Eve  he  made  a  false  division 
between  knowledge  and  obedience.  This  suggestion, 
that  continuance  in  loyalty  meant  discontinuance  in 
mental  growth,  made  God  appear  to  be  the  enemy  of 
intellectual  advancement,  and  thus,  wherever  this 
damnable  doctrine  has  been  accepted,  God  and  religion 
have  become  discredited  from  a  scientific  point  of  view. 
Such  teaching  places  morality  and  mentality  in  opposing 
camps,  and  this  divorce  effected,  there  at  once  became 
possible  the  whole  catalogue  of  human  sin  and  shame 
that  stains  through  all  history  and  turns  human  life  into 
a  hell. 

The  way  of  return  is  through  the  reunion  of  these  two 
that  should  never  have  been  disjoined,  heart  and  brain, 
piety  and  knowledge,  morality  and  mentality,  and  these 
thus  reunited  passing  on  and  up  through  surrender  of  the 
human  to  the  divine  into  spirituality,  and  recovered 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


150 

status  in  the  paradise  of  God.  Once  the  mind  of  the 
world  turns  again  toward  God  the  rest  will  be  easy.  It  was 
in  the  mind  that  the  trouble  commenced,  and  it  is  in  the 
mind  that  it  must  be  treated  and  cured.  Here  lies  the 
work  of  the  great  evangelical  thought-leaders  of  the  race, 
and  this  is  why  these  federated  university  unions  through¬ 
out  the  world  mean  so  much  for  the  future  of  mankind. 
In  them  this  harmonization  of  mentality  and  spirituality 
has  set  in,  and  the  finest  feature  of  their  association  lies 
in  the  fact  that  their  forces  of  heart  and  brain  are 
federated,  not  merely  for  the  cultivation  of  the  highest 
Christian  fellowship,  but  for  the  promotion  of  the  most 
effective  Christian  work. 

They  are  not  content  merely  to  affirm  their  faith  and 
to  let  it  go  at  that,  grand  as  even  this  would  be.  But  they 
are  banded  together  for  aggressive  work.  Their  union, 
therefore,  is  not  an  end  merely,  but  a  means  to  promote 
ends  as  wide  as  the  needs  of  humanity,  and  as  far  reach¬ 
ing  as  the  redeeming  purposes  of  Christ.  Another  great 
source  of  its  power  lies  in  its  catholicity,  by  which, 
irrespective  of  all  the  narrowing  bonds  of  creed  which 
hamper  the  churches  of  Christendom,  it  dwells  among 
the  permanent  and  universal  principles  which  are  the 
heritage  alike  of  all  the  churches.  A  return  to  these 
principles  in  their  primitive  simplicity  would  do  more  to 
bridge  the  intervals  between  the  churches,  and  thus  give 
force  to  their  evangel,  than  all  the  resolutions  of  church 
councils  that  could  be  stacked  between  the  earth  and  the 
moon.  The  reunion  of  Christendom  is  quietly  realizing 
itself  in  a  most  effective  way  through  these  university 
unions.  The  merely  accidental  and  temporary  elements 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING  15 1 

are  being  forgotten  or  ignored,  and  only  the  essential  and 
abiding  are  taken  into  account.  This  means  a  great 
contribution  to  the  bringing  together  into  one  of  all  the 
scattered  flocks  of  Christ’s  fold.  To  have  the  most  alert 
and  thoughtful  minds  of  all  lands  meeting  together  for 
prayer  in  our  great  halls  of  learning,  searching  in  the 
Scriptures  together  under  the  guidance  of  the  same  text¬ 
books,  and  seeking  thus  by  concerted  thought  and  study 
to  fit  themselves  for  impressing  the  mind  and  heart  of 
the  world  with  the  need  of  Christ  and  His  message, 
means  more  for  the  coming  in  of  the  kingdom  than  the 
work  of  any  church  organization  that  can  be  named. 

Once  we  get  the  thought  of  the  Church  unified,  every¬ 
thing  else  will  follow.  It  is  the  thinkers  to  whom  we 
must  look  to  put  us  right.  Unless  men  see  the  truth, 
they  cannot  do  the  truth,  and  truth  is  a  thing  to  be  done 
as  well  as  seen  and  known.  But  once  we  have  the  will 
to  do  we  shall  have  the  light  to  see  and  understand.  But 
truth  is  many-sided,  and  it  is  the  half-truths  that  have 
divided  the  Christian  Church  and  reduced  its  force. 
Even  the  so-called  heresies  are  half-truths,  and  hence 
their  mischief-working  power. 

A  lie  that  is  wholly  a  lie  may  be  met  and  fought  outright. 

But  a  lie  that  is  half  a  truth  is  a  harder  thing  to  fight. 

It  is  among  these  young  and  earnest  thinkers  that  our 
half-truths  will  have  a  chance  of  orbing  into  their  perfect 
spheres  and  thus  of  meeting  the  claims  of  both  mind  and 
heart.  There  is  nothing  in  the  way  of  Christian  organiza¬ 
tion  that  is  resting  on  so  broad  a  base  as  this  students’ 


152  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


federation.  It  includes  scholarly  men  and  women  of  all 
lands.  It  has  representatives  under  every  sky,  and  it 
is  seeking  to  relate  Christianity  to  the  indigenous  thought 
of  all  non-Christian  creeds.  Thus  it  holds  the  promise 
of  the  larger  union  of  Christendom  pretty  much  in  its 
own  hands.  This  movement  demands,  therefore,  a 
large  place  in  the  prayers  of  those  who  are  working  for  the 
healing  of  division  between  the  sects,  as  well  as  for 
the  further  reason  that  the  very  best  gifts  of  the  Church 
Universal  are  now  in  demand  for  dealing  with  the  post¬ 
war  problems  that  clamour  for  solution  on  every  hand. 
In  this  regard  we  have  had  no  experience,  and  we  are 
utterly  without  precedent  to  speak  a  guiding  word.  To 
whom  should  the  world  look  at  such  a  time  if  not  to  the 
men  of  light  and  leading  whom  our  seats  of  learning  have 
produced  ?  This  war  was  largely  generated  and  made 
possible  by  University  influence.  The  lectures  of  Pro¬ 
fessor  Treitschke  delivered  from  the  chair  of  a  German 
University  did  more  than  anything  else  to  disseminate 
false  views  of  Britain  and  inflame  the  German  mind. 

It  is  ‘up  to  ’  the  Universities,  therefore,  to  help  to 
heal  the  great  world’s  wound,  which  this  class  of  teaching 
has  made.  To  what  end  is  education  unless  it  can  guide 
us  aright  in  perilous  times  of  national  and  social  strife  ? 
To  have  no  message  of  light  and  leading  for  us  in  these 
supreme  moments  is  to  discredit  the  entire  system  and 
to  confess  that  in  the  evolution  upwards  of  the  race  the 
intellect  must  be  counted  out,  and  all  our  hopes  be  placed 
in  ‘  blind  forces  building  better  than  they  know/ 

But  surely  seeing  that  the  mind  of  man,  lining  up  with 
nature,  blending  her  laws  and  utilizing  her  forces,  has 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  TEACHING 


153 


been  able  to  perform  such  miracles  in  the  world  of  science 
and  invention,  there  must  be  something  more  than  mere 
passive  self-surrender  to  spiritual  forces  if  the  world  of 
living  men  is  to  move  forward  to  its  God- appointed  goal. 
Surely  in  the  kingdom  of  God  heightened  intelligence 
must  make  for  finer  efficiency.  Here,  then,  is  the  task 
that  is  challenging  the  best  thought  of  the  age,  to  change 
the  spirit  of  the  world,  to  displace  the  will-to-power  by 
the  will-to-serve. 

Christ  claims  to  control  the  dynamic  by  which  alone 
this  change  can  be  wrought.  But  even  He  can  mediate 
it  best  through  cultured  minds.  That  He  can  do  without 
human  learning  is,  of  course,  true,  but  He  can  do  a  great 
deal  better  with  it,  and  to  discredit  intellectual  power 
does  no  honour  to  Him  in  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures 
of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  The  teaching  function  of 
the  Church  must  be  kept  up  to  the  highest  degree  of 
efficiency.  Christ  has  yet  many  things  to  say  to  His 
Church  which  through  her  want  of  attention  to  the  laws 
of  her  development  are  necessarily  withheld. 

In  the  letter  to  the  Hebrews  the  author  of  that  Epistle 
found  himself  hampered  by  the  backward  condition  of 
those  to  whom  he  wrote.  He  had  advanced  truth  to 
impart.  He  was  burdened  with  his  message.  It  burned 
like  a  fire  in  his  brain.  It  struggled  for  expression 
through  his  lips.  It  trembled  on  the  point  of  his  pen. 
But  he  was  compelled  to  repress  it,  because  those  for 
whom  it  was  intended  were  still  loitering  in  the  elementary 
stages  of  spiritual  culture.  He  rebuked  them  roundly 
for  their  infantile  condition.  He  draws  an  analogy  from 
the  nursery,  and  rallies  them  for  not  having  cut  their 


154  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


spiritual  teeth,  so  that  they  still  have  need  of  milk  and 
cannot  manage  strong  meat.  He  challenges  them  to 
activity.  ‘  Be  not  sluggish !  ’  The  word  translated 
#  sluggish  '  here  is  very  full  and  suggestive.  It  carries  a 
twofold  meaning,  and  indicates  sloth  in  both  the  mental 
and  the  moral  realm,  as  well  as  in  the  domain  of  conduct. 
It  is  a  word  frequently  used  by  classical  writers  as  an 
epithet  for  an  ass,  and  combines  the  double  idea  of 
stubbornness  and  stupidity.  The  specialists  in  brain 
troubles  assure  us  that  the  slow-witted  man  is  a  slow¬ 
footed  man.  These  two  qualities  are  intimately  related. 
Sluggishness  of  life  has  its  counterpart,  and,  more  than 
probably,  its  cause,  in  sluggishness  of  thought,  and  both 
are  due  more  or  less  to  deficient  vitality.  For  this 
condition  of  things  in  the  spiritual  realm  the  apostle 
holds  these  Hebrew  Christians  responsible,  and  by 
calling  them  to  ‘  imitate  those  who  by  faith  and  patience 
inherit  the  promises  ’  he  was  showing  them  the  finest  door 
of  escape  from  the  lethargy  of  an  overfed  and  underworked 
Christianity ;  '  patience  *  meaning  in  this  connexion  large¬ 
heartedness,  issuing  in  overflowing  ministries  of  liberal¬ 
handed  charity.  Thus  the  efficiency  of  the  Church  as  the 
instrument  of  the  New  Kingdom  will  be  found  turning  on 
the  quality  of  its  teaching  staff.  It  has  to  be  admitted 
with  shame  that  she  has  never  yet  explicated  to  her  own 
mind,  much  less  translated  into  action,  the  full  content 
of  the  gospel  that  she  holds. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXHORTING 


155 


4 

The  Function  of  Exhorting 

*  He  that  exhorteth,  to  his  exhorting.’ — Rom.  xii.  8. 

The  word  here  employed  to  indicate  this  further  specializa¬ 
tion  of  function  in  the  Christian  Church  has  come  to  be 
associated  in  our  minds  with  that  particular  type  of 
service  which  is  specifically  known  as  ‘  Evangelistic.’ 

Among  Methodists  the  office  of  exhorter  has  come  to 
mean  a  more  or  less  irregular  order  of  service  whereby 
the  Church  utilizes  the  overflowing  zeal  of  those  whose 
gifts  of  public  speech  enable  them  to  give  clear  and 
forceful  expression  to  their  religious  convictions  and 
experience — men  whose  hearts  the  Lord  has  touched, 
and  who  in  free,  unconventional  speech  bear  their  witness 
to  what  God  has  done  for  their  souls.  As  Paul  used  the 
word,  however,  it  had  probably  a  much  wider  connota¬ 
tion.  It  is  the  same  word  as  is  translated  '  beseech  ' 
in  the  first  verse  of  this  chapter,  elsewhere  it  has  been 
variously  rendered  as  *  comfort,’  ‘  entreat,’  ‘  constrain,’ 
as  though  the  exhorter  were  one  who  possessed  the  gift 
of  inciting  others,  reviving  their  hopes,  kindling  their 
enthusiasms,  waking  up  their  dormant  desires,  and 
encouraging  the  despairing  to  try  again. 

If  the  work  of  the  ‘  teacher  ’  be  the  impartation  of 
truth,  then  that  of  the  exhorter  is  to  make  truth  opera¬ 
tive — to  get  men  to  do  what  they  know. 

This  power  of  appeal,  of  moving  men  to  action,  is  a 


156  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


quite  distinct  gift.  Every  great  evangelist  possesses 
it,  and  it  will  be  found  that  every  great  revival  has  been 
wrought  through  confronting  men  with  truths  already 
known,  truths  so  familiar  that  they  had  lost  their  force, 
and,  as  Coleridge  says,  ‘  lay  bedridden  in  the  dormitory 
of  the  soul,  side  by  side  with  the  most  despised  and 
exploded  errors.’ 

Here,  then,  is  the  Scriptural  warrant,  if  one  be  needed, 
for  the  office  of  the  evangelist  as  a  distinct  and  separate 
department  of  church  work.  He  is  undoubtedly  a 
specialist ;  but  specialization  in  any  one  department 
becomes  permissible  and  of  practical  value,  only  as  all 
other  departments  are  being  sustained  in  full  working 
efficiency.  It  is  the  very  efficiency  of  the  all-round  man 
that  creates  the  necessity  for  the  specialist,  and  the  coming 
in  of  the  latter  must  in  no  sense  be  interpreted  as  discredit¬ 
ing  the  former.  It  is  the  fidelity  to  detail  on  the  part  of 
the  average  man  which  makes  the  specialist  possible, 
releasing  him  from  the  thousand  and  one  duties  which 
press  upon  the  ordinary  practitioner  in  order  that  he 
may  concentrate  on  his  particular  bent. 

It  is  only  when  and  where  the  general  practitioner’s 
work  has  been  of  the  highest  quality  that  the  specialist 
can  be  seen  at  his  best.  Thus  it  is  that  an  evangelist 
will  always  be  found  achieving  his  greatest  success  where 
the  ordinary  work  of  the  ordinary  minister  has  been  well 
and  faithfully  done. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  an  evangelist  who  knew  his 
work  could  be  induced  to  take  on  the  responsibility  of 
a  great  mission  in  a  city  where  the  churches  were  asleep 
and  no  preparation  work  had  been  done.  By  the  very 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXHORTING 


157 


nature  of  his  task  he  has  to  enter  into  other  men’s  labours, 
taking  up  and  working  to  a  finish  what  they  have  com¬ 
menced,  but  have  not  been  permitted  to  complete.  They 
have  cleared  the  ground,  ploughed  it  up,  sown  it  down, 
and  harrowed  it  in.  They  have  in  some  cases  even  seen 
the  blade,  the  stalk,  and  the  ear,  but  when  they  fain 
would  have  thrust  in  the  sickle,  they  have  been  withheld. 
The  harvest  just  falls  short  of  ripeness,  waiting  for  some 
mystic  touch,  the  breath  it  may  be  of  some  new  voice, 
the  enfolding  warmth  of  a  new  atmosphere,  the  strange 
hush  of  some  vast  audience,  bowed  in  silent,  united, 
prevailing  prayer,  to  turn  its  green  of  promise  into  the 
golden  glory  of  ripened  purpose  and  fulfilled  desire. 
Now,  this  is  where  the  work  of  the  exhorter  or  evangelist 
comes  in.  It  supplies  the  last  link  in  a  succession  of 
causes  running  back,  it  may  be,  through  years. 

Christ  may  still  be  regarded  as  saying  to  those  whom 
He  sends  forth  to  this  work,  ‘  I  have  sent  you  to  reap 
that  whereon  ye  bestowed  no  labour.’  This  is  true  of 
every  great  spiritual  awakening,  whether  in  the  first 
century  or  the  twentieth.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
even  Pentecost  would  have  been  impossible  anywhere 
outside  the  Jewish  nation.  It  would  have  been  simply 
unthinkable  at  Antioch  or  Corinth  or  Rome.  It  required 
centuries  of  spiritual  preparation,  education,  and  impreg¬ 
nation.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  contributed  to  by 
prophets,  priests,  saints,  and  sages  whose  grey  dust  had 
been  sepulchred  for  centuries  before  Jesus  was  born.  It 
was  their  work  that  made  Christianity  possible,  and 
Christ  does  not  withhold  fiom  these  great  spiritual  path- 
makers  their  just  meed  of  praise.  Let  the  evangelist 


158  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


ever  bear  this  in  mind  lest  he  be  exalted  above  measure, 
and  thus  thrust  a  knife  into  his  own  usefulness.  Perhaps 
nowhere  in  the  corporate  society  is  there  such  peril  of 
friction  through  misunderstanding,  or  such  need  for  the 
admonition  not  to  think  of  one’s  self  more  highly  than 
he  ought  to  think. 

The  exhorter  viewed  as  an  evangelist  is  exposed  in  a 
very  special  way  to  the  temptation  of  over-estimating 
himself.  Of  necessity  he  is  much  in  the  limelight.  He 
acquires  a  reputation,  he  is  ‘  billed  ’  and  ‘  boomed  ’  for 
weeks  before  his  advent.  All  the  churches  unite  to  give 
him  welcome  and  co-operation,  sinking  all  their  differences 
and  suspending  all  their  ordinary  operations  that  they 
may  afford  him  free  and  unimpeded  course.  His  wishes 
are  deferred  to,  his  methods  endorsed,  what  he  says  ‘  goes/ 
as  our  American  cousins  would  say,  and  altogether  he  is 
the  man  of  the  hour.  When  he  speaks  men  and  women 
by  the  score,  who  have  held  out  against  the  most  faithful 
and  heart-searching  appeals  in  their  own  churches,  yield 
themselves  unreservedly  to  Christ,  while  all  the  workers 
in  all  the  churches  from  the  ministers  down  are  found  in 
the  inquiry-room  directing,  under  his  bidding,  those  who 
are  seeking  the  way  of  life.  Having  concluded  his  mission 
in  one  city,  amid  the  prayers  and  praises  of  the  people, 
he  moves  on  to  the  next  where  a  repetition  of  similar 
scenes  and  conditions  awaits  him,  and  unless  he  be  a  man 
of  strong  common  sense,  or  what  is  more  to  the  point, 
living  in  close  communion  with  his  Lord,  he  will  be  in 
danger  of  yielding  a  willing  ear  to  the  suggestion  of  the 
enemy,  that  really  he  is  the  man,  and  if  not  the  ‘  entire 
works  ’  at  least  the  pivot  on  which  they  turn. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXHORTING 


*59 


Thus  here  again  the  point  of  power  becomes  the  point  of 
peril,  and  where  a  man  is  strongest  he  runs  his  greatest 
risk.  Now,  from  what  we  have  said,  it  will  be  clear  that 
the  exhorter  appeals  to  the  feelings  in  order  that  he  may 
provoke  thought  into  action.  In  these  days  we  are  disposed 
to  discount  the  emotions  and  to  regard  any  display  of 
deep  feeling  as  being  ‘  bad  form/  Hence,  however 
enthusiastic  we  may  feel  about  a  matter,  we  must  not  on 
any  account  betray  it.  The  most  extravagant  praise  that 
is  permissible  in  these  superior  days  is  that  a  thing  is  f  not 
too  bad/  all  of  which  is  a  piece  of  affectation  as  hateful  as 
it  is  hurtful  to  mind  and  heart.  To  ignore  the  feelings  is 
unscientific,  to  crush  them  out  and  deny  them  expression, 
is  to  run  a  double  risk,  either  of  explosion  through  over¬ 
repression  or  of  such  reaction  on  the  seat  and  centre  of 
emotions  as  must  impair  if  not  destroy  its  power  of 
response.  There  is,  of  course,  a  healthy  control  of  the 
emotions,  by  which  they  can  be  made  to  subserve  the 
highest  mental  and  moral  ends,  and  at  which  every  one 
should  aim.  Their  inevitable  tendency  to  get  out  of  hand 
and  take  the  bit  into  their  mouths  must  not  deter  nor 
discourage  us  from  their  proper  and  legitimate  use.  We 
owe  this  at  least  to  the  war,  that  it  has  delivered  us  from 
the  falsehood  of  this  extreme  of  frigid  self-repression  which 
tended  to  freeze  our  feelings  at  their  fount. 

It  may  be  safely  said  that  there  can  be  no  true  psy¬ 
chology  of  Christianity  which  does  not  assign  to  the 
feelings  a  large  and  important  place.  While  mere 
emotionalism  that  never  issues  in  practical  expression  of 
life  and  service,  but  expends  itself  in  rapt  devotion  or 
pious  expletive,  is  always  to  be  deprecated,  yet  on  the 


i6o  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


other  hand  care  must  be  taken  not  to  chill  feeling  at  its 
source  lest  we  lower  the  vitality  which  alone  can  make 
our  own  spiritual  life  a  rapture,  or  our  personal  contact 
with  the  lives  of  others  effective.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  what  is  known  as  the  '  Welsh  Revival ’  evoked  at  the 
time  of  its  occurrence  considerable  criticism,  for  the  most 
part  kindly  even  when  keen.  But  that  was  only  the 
shallow  interpretation  of  spiritual  incompetence  which 
sought,  like  the  Lancet,  to  resolve  the  whole  question  into 
what  that  journal  described  as  ‘  a  mere  debauch  of 
emotionalism.’  An  emotionalism  that  displays  itself  in 
the  settlement  of  old-time  feuds,  in  the  payment  of  long¬ 
standing  debts,  in  the  purging  of  the  social  life,  in  the 
rectification  of  the  commercial  conscience,  and  the 
purification  of  the  home,  exposes  the  shallowness  of  a 
criticism  that  traces  such  ethical  results  to  so  inadequate  a 
cause.  Certainly  a  wave  of  emotionalism  that  would 
make  people  pay  their  debts  would  be  hailed  by  business 
people  generally  with  a  satisfaction  too  deep  for  words. 
The  fact  is  that  any  attempt  to  study  this  or  any  other 
revival  by  first  of  all  isolating  it  from  the  history  of 
Christian  preaching,  teaching,  and  living  preceding  it,  and 
dealing  with  it  as  a  thing  apart,  must  prove  abortive.  No 
great  movement  of  this  sort  can  ever  be  rightly  interpreted 
excepting  in  and  through  its  context.  What  took  place 
in  Wales  would  not  have  been  at  all  possible  excepting 
for  what  had  for  years  preceded  it  and  prepared  its  way. 
It  could  have  taken  place  nowhere  but  under  an  atmo¬ 
sphere  charged  with  spiritual  oxygen,  and  in  a  field  richly 
strewn  for  generations  with  spiritual  seed.  The  Welsh 
Pentecost  was  the  harvest  of  unstinted  sowing  in  what 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXHORTING 


161 


must  for  many  years  have  appeared  an  unproductive 
field — a  sowing  under  leaden  skies  and  by  hands  now  still 
in  death,  and  a  sowing  plentifully  watered  by  the  weeping 
of  eyes  whose  tears  have  long  since  been  dried.  It  would, 
then,  be  utterly  unscientific  to  cut  this  thing  out  and  away 
from  its  past ;  that  past  which  alone  could  have  made  it 
possible,  and  out  of  which  it  sprang.  Hence  the  folly 
of  all  such  talk  as  that  in  which  some  folk  indulge 
in  every  great  spiritual  awakening  about  what  they 
call  the  *  pitifully  weak  personality/  the  ‘  educa¬ 
tional  limitations/  and  the  ‘  mental  inadequacy  '  of  the 
evangelist.  What  is  all  this  to  the  point?  It  is  a  ‘piti¬ 
fully  weak  ’  spark  that  bridges  the  distance  between  the 
harmless  heap  of  dead  dynamite  on  the  floor  of  the  sea, 
and  the  crashing  explosion  which  rends  to  rags  the 
mighty  ironclad  of  20,000  tons.  But  there  is  no  denying 
the  effect.  And  when  all  the  factors  are  taken  into 
account  the  apparent  inadequacy  disappears.  Many 
who  read  these  words  will  remember  the  incident  con¬ 
nected  with  the  removal  of  Hellgate  rocks  from  the 
entrance  to  New  York  harbour.  These  rocks  had  for 
many  years  been  a  menace  to  the  shipping  of  that  port. 
Many  a  gallant  vessel  and  many  a  brave  fife  had  been 
sacrificed  before  the  United  States  Government  resolved 
that  they  must  be  removed.  You  will  remember  the 
‘  pitifully  weak  *  personality  selected  for  the  task  of 
moving  these  hundreds  of  tons  of  submarine  rock.  It 
was  the  tiny  hand  of  a  frail  girl  that  cut  the  fairway 
through  the  deep  for  the  commerce  of  the  world. 
But  again  the  apparent  inadequacy  of  the  means 
disappears  when  we  remember  the  years  of  work  which 
11 


162  differentiation  of  function 


preceded  it, — how  thousands  of  men  by  night  and 
day  with  pick  and  shovel  and  drill  had  toiled,  till  at 
length  the  rocks  were  honeycombed  with  explosives  and 
netted  with  electric  wires,  till  all  the  child  required  to  do 
was  to  press  the  key  that  completed  the  electric  circuit, 
and  in  one  swift  moment  the  subtle  force  flashed  its 
message  of  doom  against  the  ‘  Hellgate  ’  that  for  so  long 
had  wrought  destruction  and  death.  So  in  every  great 
revival,  all  the  chosen  agent  has  done  has  been  to  establish 
the  connecting  links  between  the  available  power  and  the 
work  that  required  to  be  effected.  The  results  in  such  a 
case  must  always  prove  a  judgement  on  the  preparatory 
work  performed.  Just  as  the  pressure  of  the  electric  key 
linked  up  and  unified  the  work  of  thousands,  from  the  last 
connexion  made  by  the  electric  engineers  to  the  first 
shovelful  of  earth  thrown  out  by  the  navvies’  hands  years 
before,  so  the  evangelist’s  work  becomes  simply  the  last 
link  in  a  chain  of  causes  that  run  back  through  the  years 
and  knit  into  a  splendid  unity  the  work  of  agents  who  had 
lived  and  loved,  and  laboured  and  died,  before  he  was 
born.  What  matters  it,  then,  that  he  is  intellectually 
unfurnished  or  theologically  unequipped  ?  It  is  a 
spiritual  quality  that  is  needed  for  the  conduction  of 
spiritual  power.  It  was  this  very  absence  of  mental 
training,  you  remember,  on  the  part  of  the  apostles  which 
staggered  the  rationalists  of  that  day.  ‘  When  they 
perceived  that  they  were  unlearned  and  ignorant  men 
they  marvelled,  and  they  took  knowledge  of  them 
that  they  had  been  with  Jesus,’  that  is  to  say,  they 
were  thrown  back  by  the  sheer  inadequacy  of  the 
merely  human  agency,  upon  a  Divine  explanation  of 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXHORTING  163 


the  accomplished  and  admitted  facts.  Specialization 
necessarily  involves  limitation.  The  evangelist’s  limita¬ 
tions  are  his  strength.  lie  requires  to  drain  all  the 
forces  of  his  life  into  practically  one  channel. 

As  Paul  dictates,  *  He  must  keep  to  his  exhorting/ 
In  view  of  the  appalling  forces  of  evil  that  are  organized 
against  him  and  his  work,  and  at  the  risk  of  being  charged 
with  narrowness,  it  is  absolutely  essential  that  he  hold 
fast  with  iron  strength  to  two  fixed  and  fundamental 
articles  of  faith.  The  first  is  :  An  indestructible  belief 
in  the  reality  of  sin  as  a  moral  disorder,  requiring  moral 
treatment  ;  and  a  steadfast  refusal  to  identify  it  with 
physical  weakness  or  mental  defect.  This  at  once  lifts 
it  out  of  the  category  of  ills  that  legislation  or  medical 
science  can  cure.  One  of  the  most  popular  and  persist¬ 
ent  fallacies  of  the  day  is  the  fiction  that  the  legal  order 
can  effect  moral  reform.  The  immediate  and  logical 
effect  of  accepting  this  fallacy  is  to  weaken  the  sense  of 
individual  responsibility  by  transferring  it  to  the  State. 
Of  course  it  is  easy  enough  to  frame  laws,  but  laws  cannot 
administer  themselves.  They  require  to  be  administered. 
A  law  to  be  effective  must  be  the  creation  of  moral  senti¬ 
ment,  and  its  successful  administration  must  ever  depend 
upon  the  permanence  of  the  creative  sentiment  of  which 
it  is  the  expression.  Wherever  that  sentiment  becomes 
too  weak  or  too  indolent  to  insist  upon  its  administration, 
then  the  inefficient  law  serves  only  as  a  moral  watermark 
to  indicate  from  what  height  the  ethical  feeling  of  the 
community  has  receded.  Such  laws,  unless  indeed  they 
act  as  a  moral  challenge  or  rebuke,  are  better  erased  from 
the  Statute-book,  for  any  law  that  can  be  violated  with 


164  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


impunity  reacts  with  disaster  on  moral  conduct.  The 
Parliament  that  seeks  to  improve  public  morals  by  legal 
enactments  which  do  not  represent  the  feeling  and 
determination  of  the  community  will  find  the  very 
public  it  is  seeking  to  improve  taxing  its  ingenuity  in 
discovering  methods  of  evasion,  and  addressing  itself 
to  the  problem  of  how  to  enjoy  the  profits,  and  at  the 
same  time  escape  the  penalties  of  wrong.  Even  at  the 
best  that  which  is  legislative  is  merely  palliative,  and 
the  peril  is  lest  the  Church  should  abdicate  in  favour  of 
the  State,  and  by  discrediting  her  own  place  and  power 
find  too  late  that  she  has  forfeited  them  both,  gaining 
the  whole  world  of  dead  machinery  in  the  way  of  legisla¬ 
tion  without  dynamic,  and  in  the  process  losing  her  soul. 

Let  every  evangelist,  in  the  second  place,  swear  unswerv¬ 
ing  allegiance  to  the  truth  that  the  Christianity  of  the 
New  Testament  alone  supplies  the  moral  dynamic  by 
which  society  can  be  redeemed.  The  Church  stands  for 
this  impregnable  position,  that  there  is  no  hope  for  man, 
either  individual  or  collective,  apart  from  Jesus  Christ. 
It  is  this  belief  that  feeds  the  fires  of  her  missionary  zeal, 
and  sends  her  out  everywhere  seeking  that  she  may  save. 
It  is  because  Jesus  Christ  stands  before  the  wrorld  as  the 
Supreme  Expression  of  the  moral  order,  because  His 
Cross  is  a  twofold  revelation  of  everlasting  righteousness 
and  everlasting  love,  that  a  people’s  attitude  to  Him 
becomes  the  key  to  their  character  and  the  forecast  of 
their  destiny.  It  is  idle  to  think  we  can  ignore  Him  ; 
He  will  not  be  ignored.  He  insists  on  being  taken  into 
account.  A  house-builder  might  as  well  think  of  ignoring 
the  law  of  gravitation,  as  the  builder  of  character  think 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXHORTING  165 


of  ignoring  Jesus  Christ.  The  builder  in  brick  and  stone 
is  confronted  with  the  law  of  gravity  at  every  step.  It 
is  always  in  evidence,  silently  and  secretly  testing  his 
work.  He  cannot  find  a  square  inch  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  where  he  can  escape  from  its  rule,  and  he  must 
choose  as  to  whether  he  will  have  it  with  him  or  against 
him.  It  is  an  everywhere  pervasive  force  which  insists 
on  being  reckoned  with,  an  inspector  of  public  buildings 
that  is  never  off  duty  and  can  never  be  bluffed — a  clerk 
of  works  that  no  builder  has  ever  yet  been  able  to  blind 
with  a  bribe.  So  with  Jesus  Christ  and  the  builder  of 
character,  Christ  demands  to  be  dealt  with.  He  stands 
for  the  law  of  moral  gravity  ;  indeed,  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  He  employed  the  law  of  physical  gravity  to 
illustrate  the  action  of  its  moral  counterpart  in  relation 
to  the  contrasted  fortunes  of  those  who  obeyed  His  com¬ 
mandments,  or  rebelled.  Listen  :  *  Therefore  whosoever 
heareth  these  sayings  of  Mine,  and  doeth  them,  I  will 
liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which  built  his  house  upon 
a  rock  : 

'  And  the  rain  descended  and  the  floods  came,  and 
the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell 
not  :  for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock. 

*  And  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  Mine, 
and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man, 
which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand  : 

*  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and 
the  winds  blew  and  beat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell : 
and  great  was  the  fall  of  it/ 

Now,  what  is  true  of  the  individual  is  true  of  every 
system  of  organization  or  corporate  body  of  men.  The 


166  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


fortunes  of  every  institution  will  turn  on  its  relation  to 
Jesus  Christ.  ‘  He  must  abolish  all  rule  and  authority  and 
power,  for  He  must  reign  till  He  hath  put  all  enemies 
under  His  feet.’  Men  may  build  themselves  into  guilds, 
fraternities,  federations,  chambers  of  commerce,  and 
boards  of  trade,  in  fact  into  any  and  every  kind  of 
sodality ;  they  may  join  forces  so  as  to  present 
a  solid  front  against  attack;  but  unless  the  structural 
principle  of  their  edifice  be  obedience  to  the  laws  of  Christ, 
they  will  be  building  upon  sand.  It  is  not  that  Christ 
remains  neutral ;  He  is  positively  hostile.  He  ‘  consumes 
with  the  spirit  of  His  mouth  and  destroys  with  the  bright¬ 
ness  of  His  coming/  He  refuses  to  be  counted  out. 
Come  in  He  will,  either  as  a  building  up  or  a  disintegrating 
force,  and  any  social,  political,  or  economic  system  that 
exalts  itself  against  Him  is  foredoomed  to  fall.  Listen 
to  this  exposition  of  Socialism  by  Moses  Baritz,  one  of 
its  Canadian  exponents,  in  the  columns  of  the  Toronto 
Globe  : 

Dear  Mr.  Editor, 

Permit  me  as  the  accredited  organizer  for  the  Socialist  party 
of  Canada  for  the  province  of  Ontario,  to  give  a  repudiation  of 
the  statements  of  the  Ivev.  George  Chown  that  Socialism  is 
founded  upon  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  The  Socialist  position  is 
founded  upon  Science,  both  sociological  and  economic.  As  such 
it  is  opposed  to  all  religions,  which,  we  maintain,  were  products 
of  given  social  conditions.  With  the  establishment  of  a  social 
regime,  Christianity,  Judaism,  and  all  supernatural  ideas  clinging 
to  mankind  will  be  abolished.  The  Socialist  party  of  Canada 
is  opposed  to  the  unscientific  worship  of  Christ,  Buddha,  or 
Mohammed.  We  do  not  believe  in  the  salvation  of  the  Church. 
We  are  opposed  to  that  idea.  It  is  far  better  to  have  the  people 
understand  this  now  than  let  the  confusion  exist  or  let  it  be 
disseminated  in  the  pulpit.  Socialists  cannot  believe  in  any 
supernatural  God.  If  they  do,  they  are  not  Socialists.  The 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXHORTING  167 


pamphlet  issued  by  the  Socialist  party  of  Great  Britain  on 
Socialism  and  Religion  is  the  only  attitude  we  can  take  up.  The 
Church  will  find  in  us  its  unrelenting  foe.  Christianity,  with  its 
superstitions,  must  be  submerged  before  the  workers  obtain  their 
complete  emancipation.  That  is  our  slogan,  that  is  our  challenge. 
Far  better  let  it  be  known  now,  and  so  avoid  misconception  in 
the  future.  Finally,  a  Christian  cannot  be  a  Socialist,  and  a 
Socialist  cannot  be  a  believer  in  Christ  or  God. 

Now  in  common  fairness,  it  ought  to  be  said  that  there 
are  many  schools  of  Socialism,  some  of  them  closely 
affiliated  with  the  Christian  Church,  and  many  of  which 
would  indignantly  repudiate  the  claims  set  forth  in  this 
excerpt  as  representing  the  general  socialistic  trend. 
Still  there  remains  the  ominous  fact  that  a  widely-spread 
and  highly  organized  socialistic  system  with  destructive 
aims  has  been  framed  with  the  deliberate  design  of 
antagonizing  Christ  and  His  Church,  and  all  that  they 
stand  for  in  the  individual,  family,  social,  commercial, 
and  political  life  of  the  State.  That  is  to  say,  the  Christ 
who  has  created  the  freedom,  the  civilization,  the  intel¬ 
lectual  life,  and  the  most  potent  moral  forces  of  the  world, 
the  Christ  who  lived  and  loved,  who  laboured  and  suffered 
and  died,  that  He  might  make  men  brothers  the  whole 
world  round,  this  Christ,  who  is  the  best  friend  ever 
possessed  by  man  or  woman  or  little  child,  is  repudiated 
by  this  Socialistic  school.  Now  what  kind  of  a  school 
that  must  be  which  requires  as  a  prelude  to  its  operations 
the  denial  of  God  and  the  rejection  of  Christ  one  hardly 
dares  to  think,  much  less  to  say.  Does  any  one  dream 
that  emancipation  is  coming  along  such  lines  as  these  ? 
The  structural  principle  of  such  a  combine  is  the  utter¬ 
most  selfishness,  and  selfishness  is  anti-social  all  the  while 


168  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


and  every  time.  The  structural  principle  of  the  Christian 
Church  is  self-sacrifice,  and  this  is  the  winning  force 
in  history.  Christ's  gospel  expresses  this,  His  death 
attests  it.  It  is  the  force  to  which  every  other  force  will 
yet  yield  allegiance  and  bow  the  knee.  It  is  the  force  of 
Love  Incarnate,  suffering,  bleeding,  dying,  that  it  may 
save.  This  is  the  ultimate  force  of  the  universe,  that 
gathers  up  every  other  force  into  its  pierced  hands. 
Listen  to  this  Supreme  Personality  in  whom  this  force 
concentres,  and  from  whom  it  radiates  through  all  the 
courses  of  the  suns,  through  all  the  lands  of  time,  and 
through  all  changes  of  history  :  ‘  All  power  ' — that  is 
every  imaginable  kind  of  power — *  is  Mine.  Therefore 
go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.'  The  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  is  the  only  hope 
for  society  ;  it  is  the  only  way  of  freedom  for  the 
working  man.  What  was  the  Renaissance  of  the 
fifteenth  century  ?  It  was  the  emancipation  of  the 
individual  from  ecclesiastical  fetters  so  that  he  came  to 
himself  and  the  consciousness  of  his  power.  According 
to  Professor  Hudson,  that  movement  originated  in 
industrial  Florence.  There  it  gathered  force  and  flow. 
It  was  the  working  man  of  that  age  who  threw  off  the 
tyranny  of  a  monstrous  ecclesiasticism  that,  like  ‘  the 
old  man  of  the  sea,'  threatened  to  crush  out  the  spirit 
and  strangle  the  fife  of  both  the  Church  and  the  world. 
Is  the  working  man  going  back  into  tyranny  ?  Is  he 
going  to  substitute  a  socialistic  for  an  ecclesiastic  yoke  ? 
I  venture  to  say  that  a  society  built  upon  the  Christless 
and  godless  lines  of  Moses  Baritz  must  prove  fatal  to 
the  development  of  the  individual  life.  It  must  prove 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXHORTING  169 


destructive  of  all  initiative  by  bruising  all  its  manhood 
into  one  common  mould  of  anonymity.  It  represents 
the  supreme  incarnation  of  despotism.  It  appeals  to 
the  independence  of  the  working  man,  only  to  coerce  him 
into  a  slavery  as  unreasoning  as  it  is  tyrannous.  Under 
its  rigorous  regime  he  dare  not  do  his  best.  He  must 
stultify  himself  ;  he  must  violate  his  own  self-respect  by 
becoming  the  mere  instrument  of  a  force  which  robs  him 
of  the  right  of  self-expression.  Against  all  this,  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  defence.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  all  the  ferment  we  witness  in  Society 
to-day,  which  is  disturbing  the  labour  markets  of  the 
old  world  and  the  new,  is  a  ferment  that  New 
Testament  Christianity  has  created  and  which  a  whole¬ 
hearted  acceptance  of  its  teachings  alone  can  allay. 
It  is  the  little  leaven  cast  by  Christ  into  the  heart  of 
humanity,  and  which  is  destined  to  work  out  its  beneficent 
results  in  history  till  all  class  conflicts  are  harmonized  in 
a  world-wide  brotherhood.  If  we  teach  men  that  they 
are  brothers,  it  is  no  matter  for  surprise  that  they  should 
expect  some  practical  expression  of  it  in  the  working 
days  of  life.  That  they  should  be  found  adopting  rough- 
and-ready  methods  to  see  it  realized  is  perhaps  not  to  be 
wondered  at.  Men  who  are  struggling  for  their  admitted 
rights  are  not  to  be  judged  too  harshly  if  at  times  they 
prove  guilty  of  the  falsehood  of  extremes.  The  call 
of  the  time  to  the  Church  is  to  interpret  this  movement 
correctly,  not  in  any  narrow  and  merely  local  sense,  but 
historically,  and  to  gather  up  and  guide  this  elemental 
force  by  yoking  it  to  noble  and  unselfish  ends. 


170  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


md 

D 

The  Function  of  Giving 

4  He  that  giveth,  let  him  do  it  with  (simplicity)  liberality.’ — 

Rom.  xii.  8. 

It  might  be  thought  that  as  the  function  of  giving  is  in  a 
measure  common  to  all  the  members  of  the  Christian  body- 
corporate  it  is  difficult  to  regard  it  in  any  way  as  a  special 
office.  But  while  it  may  be  true  that  each  is  permitted 
and  even  required  to  make  contribution  according  to  his 
ability  to  the  maintenance  and  propagation  of  the  truth 
for  which  Christianity  stands,  yet  at  the  same  time  there 
are  those  whose  ability  in  this  direction  is  so  marked 
that  it  amounts  to  a  specialized  function.  The  special 
ability  to  give  springs  normally  out  of  the  special  ability 
to  acquire.  The  money-making  gift  has  its  own  particular 
peril.  Of  course  every  gift  has  to  be  safeguarded  lest  it 
get  out  of  hand,  and  by  over-development  frustrate  that 
ideal  harmony  and  symmetrical  proportion,  which  is 
sought  to  be  realized  in  the  body-corporate,  which  is  the 
Church.  Now  the  qualities  commonly  developed  in  the 
normal  acquisition  of  wealth  are  hardly  identical  with 
those  which  we  associate  with  its  liberal  and  unostenta¬ 
tious  distribution.  Yet  the  word  translated  ‘  simplicity  7 
enfolds  both  these  ideas,  so  that  sometimes  it  is  rendered 
by  the  one  and  sometimes  by  the  other  term.  Now  if 
we  think  for  a  moment  of  the  men  who  have  been  most 
successful  from  a  business  point  of  view,  the  men  who 
have  ‘  made  by  force  their  merit  known,  and  lived  to 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  GIVING 


171 

clutch  the  golden  keys/  we  shall  agree  that  *  simplicity  ’ 
is  hardly  their  outstanding  feature.  If  we  were  asked 
to  sum  them  up  in  a  word,  *  simplicity'  is  not  the  exact 
term  we  should  select.  And  yet  there  is  a  sense  in  which 
it  might  well  be  used,  namely  that  singleness  of  aim  or 
unity  of  purpose  which  focuses  all  the  forces  of  life  to 
one  shining  point  of  success  and  will  not  be  denied.  But 
the  kind  of  man  that  our  modern  system  of  business 
turns  out,  when,  as  too  often  happens,  it  has  its  way,  is 
not  of  the  highest  type.  Instead  of  emerging  as  he  had 
hoped  the  undisputed  master  of  the  system,  the  tables 
have  been  so  dexterously  turned  that  the  system  has 
mastered  him.  Indeed,  to  such  an  extent  has  it  succeeded 
in  mechanizing  him  that  he  cannot  without  peril  to  body 
or  mind  get  out  of  his  stride.  There  are  battles  daily 
fought  in  the  market-place  and  the  Exchange  where 
more  than  blood  is  spilt.  The  passion  for  gain,  the 
subtleties  of  finance,  the  secrecy  under  which  negotiations 
have  to  be  conducted  in  great  transactions,  the  skill  to 
read  and  forecast  the  markets,  the  scouting  for  first 
intelligence,  the  price  paid  for  secret  information,  the 
control  of  one’s  features  so  that  the  fiercest  competition 
is  masked  under  the  blankest  indifference  of  demeanour 
or  casualness  of  manner,  the  universal  tendency  of  the 
buyer  to  under- value  and  affect  to  despise  what  he  would 
compass  sea  and  land  to  acquire,  these  and  a  thousand 
other  devices  that  the  unscrupulous  adopt  in  order  to 
gain  their  ends,  provoke  corresponding  reactions.  Thus 
even  among  the  most  scrupulous,  methods  suggest  them¬ 
selves  for  adoption  which,  while  they  may  be  deplored  and 
resisted,  yet  result  in  developing  a  certain  hardness  of 


172  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


heart,  and  keenness  of  brain,  together  with  a  general 
doubt  of  good  faith,  which  prevent  business  from  being 
the  pure  pleasure  it  might  be  if  conducted  on  a  loftier 
plane.  All  this  sort  of  thing  tends  to  produce  general 
deterioration  of  character  and  conduct,  so  that  too  often 
the  making  of  money  means  the  unmaking  of  men.  Of 
course  this  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  the  great 
world  of  business  furnishes  a  moral  gymnasium  for  the 
development  of  those  imperishable  qualities  of  personal 
character — truth,  probity,  conscientiousness,  considera¬ 
tion  for  others — and  all  that  goes  to  make  a  man,  and  of 
which  the  material  currency  is  merely  the  perishable 
sign.  The  methods  a  man  adopts  to  acquire  wealth  will 
necessarily  be  controlled  by  the  place  it  occupies  in  his 
scale  of  values.  If  it  be  the  4  be-all  and  end-all  *  of 
existence,  then,  of  course,  there  is  nothing  tangible  or 
intangible,  personal  or  relative,  practical  or  sentimental 
that  he  will  not  sacrifice  in  its  pursuit.  His  estimate  of 
it  will  determine  the  qualities  he  will  call  out  and  enlist 
to  make  it  his  own.  It  is  this  side-by-side  acquisition  in 
the  way  of  character-quality  that  really  matters,  and 
which  is  of  infinitely  vaster  importance  than  the  money 
which  is  merely  its  material  and  visible  symbol.  It  is 
what  a  man  becomes  himself  during  this  process  that 
fixes  his  place  in  the  moral  scale,  and  determines  whether 
his  gains  are  to  be  counted  as  '  weal-th  ’  or  *  ill-th.’  The 
value  of  the  personal  equation  must  never  be  forgotten. 
Indeed  the  more  we  look  into  it  the  clearer  it  becomes 
that  personality  is  the  supreme  factor  of  value.  Apart 
from  it  there  can  be  neither  weal-th  nor  ill-th.  Of  what 
value  was  all  the  gold  of  Australia  or  the  diamonds  of 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  GIVING 


173 


Kimberley  until  the  advent  of  man  ?  And  even  then  it 
had  to  be  man  plus  knowledge  and  power  of  appreciation 
and  appraisement.  To  the  native  tribes  they  had  no 
significance  or  worth.  Minus  personality  then,  gold, 
silver,  copper,  diamonds,  rubies,  and  the  rest  are  simply 
worthless  earth.  Yet  this  worthless  earth,  which  owes 
everything  in  the  way  of  value  to  personality,  can  so 
react  on  personality  itself  as  to  deteriorate  it  and  depre¬ 
ciate  its  worth.  Thus  there  comes  to  pass  this  strange 
thing,  that  man  in  heightening  the  value  of  matter  so 
often  lowers  the  value  of  mind.  In  personalizing  it  he 
perceives  that  virtue  has  gone  out  from  him,  and  that  it 
has  de-personalized  him.  Through  constant  use  certain 
acquisitive  faculties  are  sharpened  to  an  almost  uncanny 
keenness,  while  others  are  correspondingly  blunted  into 
dullness  by  disuse.  Clearly  any  kind  of  action  or  manner 
of  life  that  thus  threatens  with  deterioration  the  finer 
qualities  of  the  soul  must  result  in  one  of  two  things.  It 
will  either,  through  the  successful  resistance  it  provokes, 
heighten  the  power  of  the  soul,  or  through  being  suc¬ 
cumbed,  bring  about  an  all-round  depreciation  of  character 
and  conduct.  There  is  only  one  way  of  escape  from  this 
materializing  process,  only  one  way  in  which  to  stamp 
the  perishable  currency  of  earth  with  an  imperishable 
value,  and  that  is  by  making  it  serve  great  moral  ends. 
Then  though  it  has  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy  it  will 
be  made  to  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly,  and  thus  be 
stored  up  as  treasure  in  that  land  where  no  moth  nor 
rust  can  corrupt,  nor  thief  break  through  and  steal. 

We  are  assuming,  of  course,  that  in  Paul’s  mind  there 
was  a  class  of  persons  within  the  early  Church  whose 


174  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


wealth  marked  them  out  as  being  specially  fitted  to  finance 
its  needs.  These  persons  presumably  could  not  preach. 
They  had  no  teaching  power  ;  no  outstanding  capacity 
to  stand  for  the  defence  of  the  gospel  and  its  institutions. 
But  they  had  the  power  to  stand  financially  behind  those 
who  could,  and  surely  the  next  best  thing  to  being  able 
to  do  a  thing  one’s  self  is  to  enable  it  to  be  done  by  some¬ 
one  else  !  This  is  the  power  of  wealth,  and  that  which 
gives  it  the  peculiar  advantage  it  possesses,  of  being 
convertible  into  almost  every  other  class  of  power  with 
the  least  possible  loss.  If  a  man  have  only  labour,  or 
literature,  or  music,  or  art  to  offer  in  exchange  for  what 
he  needs  there  may  be  no  demand  for  these  things,  so 
that  he  is  compelled  to  hold  on  until  there  is,  or  part  with 
them  for  considerably  less  than  their  worth.  But  the 
holder  of  current  coin  can  command  all  that  the  markets 
have  to  offer,  because  he  possesses  the  most  convenient 
and  universal  medium  of  exchange.  If  this  were  true  in 
Paul’s  day  it  has  an  infinitely  wider  sway  and  significance 
in  our  own.  The  cause  of  God  is  capable  of  a  much  broader 
interpretation  to-day  than  then.  Many  of  the  great 
movements  for  political  freedom,  for  social  betterment, 
for  intellectual  emancipation,  together  with  all  scientific 
investigations  pursued  for  making  this  world  a  healthier, 
happier  place  in  which  to  live,  may  be  classed  under  this 
category.  Hence  the  wealthy  patrons  of  science,  art, 
music,  literature,  education,  and  social  reform  generally 
become  ‘  labourers  together  with  God.’  What  they  thus 
spend  they  really  save,  and  not  merely  save  but  heighten 
in  value  to  an  immeasurable  degree.  But  such  an  incre¬ 
ment  is  gained  only  as  it  is  not  sought.  ‘  For  My  sake 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  GIVING 


175 


and  the  gospel’s  ’  is  the  one  and  only  motive  which 
carries  Christ’s  sanction  and  ensures  this  end.  This  must 
be  the  simple  and  unadulterated  purpose  that  prompts 
the  giver  in  bestowing  his  gift.  Else  it  by  so  much  ceases 
to  be  a  gift  and  becomes  merely  a  price  paid  for  some 
personal  end  that  is  sought  to  be  gained.  Once  we  are 
found  giving  simply  for  the  purpose  of  winning  a  reputa¬ 
tion  for  generosity,  or  under  the  pressure  of  a  popular 
movement,  or  for  fear  of  being  thought  mean,  or  for 
advertising  purposes  either  personal  or  commercial,  our  gift 
is  stripped  of  all  moral  significance  and  worth.  This  does 
not  mean  that  we  shall  not  get  what  we  paid  for.  We 
probably  shall.  Christ,  speaking  of  such  givers  in  His 
day,  declared  that  they  got  their  reward.  But  having 
got  our  money’s  worth  in  one  market,  do  not  let  us  imagine 
that  we  can  collect  it  over  again  in  another.  We  were 
out  for  certain  worldly  ends,  we  paid  our  money,  we  got 
the  goods,  and  there  the  transaction  ends.  This  is  a 
judgement  from  which  there  is  no  appeal.  Our  text, 
then,  is  a  searchlight  of  a  passage.  It  puts  us  all  on  trial. 
Measured  by  its  test  it  is  to  be  feared  that  most  of  our 
so-called  giving  would  have  to  be  discredited  as  a  spurious 
thing.  It  is  not  a  question  of  the  amount  subscribed. 
That  does  not  come  into  it.  The  threepenny-bit,  as  well 
as  the  million,  has  to  submit  to  this  test  because  principles 
take  no  account  of  size.  It  is  the  vital  principle  by  which 
the  gift  is  motived  that  matters.  This  is  the  question 
which  comes  up  for  judgement,  and  this  alone.  Nothing 
else  is  of  concern  because  it  belongs  to  the  temporary 
and  accidental  order.  Money  given  to  any  cause  is  or 
ought  to  be  an  outward  and  tangible  expression  of  some 


176  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


inward  feeling  of  sympathy  with  the  ends  sought  to  be 
served.  Where,  however,  there  is  absolutely  no  corre¬ 
sponding  feeling,  but  simply  a  carefully  calculated  and 
cold-blooded  investment  of  cash  for  the  sake  of  some 
personal  advantage,  do  not  let  us  fool  ourselves  into 
supposing  that  under  cover  of  a  seeming  benefaction 
we  shall  ‘  win  the  double  ’  and  make  a  profit  in  both 
worlds.  The  administration  of  the  spiritual  realm  will 
not  only  repudiate  as  spurious  every  coin  that  is  given 
with  a  mercenary  motive,  but  it  will  debit  the  giver  with 
the  wrongful  intent,  thus  making  it  better  for  him  if  he 
had  given  nothing  at  all.  Instead,  therefore,  of  piling 
up  moral  assets  by  such  offerings  he  is  contracting  moral 
liabilities,  and  exposing  himself  to  the  shame  of  final 
unmasking  before  all  worlds,  ‘  for  there  is  nothing  hidden 
that  shall  not  be  revealed,  nor  secret  that  shall  not  be 
known.’  Better  that  we  should  bring  ourselves  to  judge¬ 
ment  here  and  now,  than  that  we  should  be  brought  by 
another  to  judgement  yonder.  We  are  not  left  in  ignor¬ 
ance,  neither  shall  we  be  able  to  plead  that  we  were  work¬ 
ing  by  a  different  standard  from  that  which  is  to  serve  as 
a  criterion  in  the  final  test.  Sincerity  is  the  one  and 
only  requirement.  It  is  the  supreme  factor  of  moral 
value,  so  that  measured  by  this  test,  scale  is  of  no  moment 
and  may  be  counted  out. 

Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  widow’s  mite,  touched  by 
this  acid  and  found  to  possess  this  quality,  is  declared  to 
transcend  in  moral  worth  the  most  lavish  disbursement 
from  which  it  is  absent.  Of  course,  on  the  merely  com¬ 
mercial  plane  the  purchasing  power  of  a  pound  is  un¬ 
touched  by  the  question  of  motive.  Suppose  that  I 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  GIVING 


177 


give  five  guineas  towards  some  charity,  and  do  it  en¬ 
tirely  for  self-advertising  purposes,  my  ulterior  motive 
will  not  in  any  degree  detract  from  its  purchasing  power. 
Judiciously  spent  it  will  go  just  as  far  as  a  similar 
donation  given  by  another  from  the  purest  and  most 
unselfish  motive.  But  as  these  deeds  register  themselves 
on  the  moral  scale  they  will  be  separated  in  value  by  all 
the  distance  that  divides  nought  from  five,  and  that  is 
infinity  !  Now  this  is  where  Paul's  teaching  leads  us. 
He  makes  simplicity,  that  is  sincerity,  the  supreme  test 
of  worth,  and  as  he  is  writing  in  social  terms  and  dealing 
with  men  in  their  corporate  relation  to  each  other  in  the 
body  of  Christ  which  is  the  Church,  it  follows  that  any 
insincerity  must  be  fatal  to  that  fine  co-ordination  of 
function  to  which  the  whole  of  his  logic  and  persuasion 
moves.  No  society,  whether  political  or  religious,  can 
be  held  together  excepting  by  truth.  Insincerity  renders 
association  impossible,  and  the  false  man  tends  more  and 
more  to  become  a  lonely  man,  because  his  gains  invariably 
mean  someone  else’s  loss.  It  does  not  matter  whether  he 
deals  in  money  or  words,  they  have  to  suffer  discount  by 
his  handling.  Such  a  man  degrades  business  into  a  trick, 
social  life  into  pretence,  friendship  into  convenience,  and 
liberality  into  a  he.  But  before  closing  this  chapter  let  it 
be  fixed  fast  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  that  the  teaching  of 
the  apostle  bears  no  reference  whatever  to  the  amount  that 
is  given.  The  scale  of  the  gift  does  not  in  any  way 
affect  the  principle  which  Paul  lays  down  and  which 
deals  exclusively  with  the  spirit  of  the  giver.  Now  this 
statement  may  seem  to  run  in  the  teeth  of  the  revised 
reading  which  substitutes  *  liberality  *  for  '  simplicity,’ 
12 


178  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


and  thus  seems  to  make  Paul  take  into  view  the  scale  of 
giving  rather  than  its  motive  power.  But  this  is  only  in 
appearance,  for  strange  to  say,  the  word  ‘  liberality  ’  in 
its  true  and  proper  significance  has  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  magnitude,  but  entirely  with  the  good  faith  of  the 
giver.  It  comes  from  the  same  root  as  the  word  ‘  liberty/ 
and,  according  to  Professor  Skeat,  its  essential  meaning 
is  to  *  give  as  the  free  man  gives/  So  that,  according  to 
the  revisers,  what  Paul  really  means  is  that  Christian 
giving  should  be  the  glad  spontaneous  output  on  the  part 
of  God's  free  man — under  no  pressure  or  compulsion, 
not  influenced  by  public  opinion,  not  controlled  by  any 
considerations  of  what  others  may  say  or  do,  not  requiring 
to  be  prompted  by  any  exterior  or  ulterior  motives,  but 
the  full,  free,  unconsidered  forth-flowing  of  love's  own 
offering  to  the  object  of  its  regard.  Liberality,  then,  has 
primarily  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  scale  of  one’s 
giving.  It  is  a  qualitative  and  not  a  quantitative  term. 
And  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  synonyms  of  liberality 
such  as  ‘  kindness  '  and  ‘  generosity  ’  have  likewise  this 
same  significance.  ‘  Generosity  '  is  literally  the  act  of 
the  4  gens  '  or  gentleman.  It  is  the  sign  of  the  gently 
born,  and  an  expression  of  high  breeding,  so  that  to 
give  generously  is  to  give  as  a  finely-grained  or  sensitive 
soul  would  give,  when  feeling  for  another’s  pain  and 
want.  ‘  Kindness  ’  again  is  the  love  that  flows  towards 
one’s  kind  or  kin  ;  the  root  idea  being  that  of  affinity, 
from  which  every  notion  of  pressure  or  compulsion  must 
be  withheld.  Both  these  words,  ‘  generosity '  and 
‘kindness,’  find  their  common  origin  in  a  Sanscrit  word 
which  carries  the  idea  of  ‘  birth,’  in  the  sense  in  which  we 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  GIVING 


179 


use  it  when  we  say  such  and  such  a  person  is  a  ‘  man  of 
birth/  meaning  thereby  that  he  is  the  product  of  good 
breeding  and  noble  generous  blood.  From  all  of  which 
it  will  be  clear  that  our  giving  will  be  judged  on  its 
quality  rather  than  its  quantity,  and  that  inasmuch  as  to 
love  sincerely  is  within  the  reach  of  the  least  and  lowest  of 
Christ’s  followers,  the  offering  of  the  very  poorest,  by 
the  possession  of  this  quality,  may  outstrip  in  true 
liberality  the  munificence  of  the  multi-millionaire. 


180  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


6 

The  Function  of  Leadership 

*  He  that  ruleth  (let  him  do  it)  with  diligence.' — Rom.  xii.  8. 

We  are  now  faced  with  the  function  of  leadership,  for  this 
the  true  meaning  of  the  word  which  is  here  translated  ‘  Rule.  ’ 
In  Dr.  Way’s  translation,  we  have  it  rendered :  ‘  If  your 
department  be  the  direction  of  others’  labours,  stimulate 
them  by  being  energetic  yourself.’  Now  it  is  very  manifest 
from  this  teaching  of  Paul’s  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  is 
not  administered  on  the  false  assumption  that  all  men  are 
equal.  Here,  of  course,  he  is  simply  repeating  the  great 
principle  enunciated  by  his  Master  and  Lord,  and  which 
Christ  illustrated  and  enforced  in  one  of  His  parables. 
The  kingdom  of  Heaven,  he  declared,  was  like  a  man  about 
to  take  a  journey  into  a  far  country,  who  called  his 
servants  and  allocated  among  them  his  capital,  not  in 
equal  proportion  because  the  men  were  not  equal  in 
capacity.  ‘  To  one  he  gave  five  talents,  to  another  two, 
to  another  one,  to  each  according  to  his  several  ability.’ 
And  the  inequality  in  ability  disclosed  and  declared  itself 
in  the  inequality  of  returns,  thus  justifying  his  estimate 
of  his  men.  In  the  kingdom  of  God  then,  as  in  the  king¬ 
dom  of  man,  there  is  an  order  of  graduated  trust  cor¬ 
responding  with  graduated  capacity.  God  is  the  God 
of  things  as  they  are,  and  things  as  they  are  have  an  order 
of  precedence  which  has  to  be  recognized  and  observed. 
There  are  rulers  and  ruled,  there  are  leaders  and  led.  Nor 
is  the  supremacy  of  the  Divine  Rule  in  any  way  affected 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  LEADERSHIP 


181 


by  this  admission,  because  all  rule  and  authority  of  man 
over  man  is  divinely  delegated,  and,  therefore,  whether 
recognized  as  such  or  not,  is  a  trust  for  which  the  earthly 
ruler  must  finally  give  account  to  Him  from  whom  it  has 
been  derived.  The  mutual  recognition  of  this  principle, 
could  it  be  induced,  would  preserve  the  ruled  from  resent¬ 
ment,  and  the  ruler  from  abuse  of  his  position  and  power. 
As  we  have  seen  in  previous  chapters,  every  special  gift  is 
attended  with  its  special  danger  and  requires  to  be  safe¬ 
guarded  with  special  grace,  and  lest  the  leader  should  be 
tempted  to  shirk  the  hardships  of  those  whom  he  leads, 
or  the  director  prescribe  one  rule  of  conduct  for  himself 
and  quite  another  for  those  whom  he  controls,  the  apostle 
lays  down  the  injunction  of  our  text.  Here  the  leader  is 
clearly  required  to  set  an  example  of  endurance  and  in¬ 
trepidity,  of  initiative  and  courage.  The  word  translated 
‘  diligence  5  is  a  much  stronger  term  than  our  English  word 
diligence  implies,  that  is  to  say,  as  it  is  ordinarily  under¬ 
stood.  Though  if  the  Latin  word  diligentia  were  made 
to  yield  up  all  its  meaning,  it  would  be  found  much  fuller 
and  intenser  than  many  people  dream.  Its  root-meaning 
is  ‘  to  select/  ‘  to  single  out/  ‘  to  fix  upon/  hence  some¬ 
times  *  to  love  ’  and  so  ‘  to  make  the  supreme  object  of 
desire/  But  the  word  Paul  used  is  stronger  even  than 
this.  It  has  in  it  the  note  of  passionate  urgency,  the 
quality  of  enthusiasm  lifted  to  its  highest  power.  It  is  a 
word  expressive  of  that  which  throbs  and  burns  with  vital 
energy,  it  signifies  the  very  whitest  heat  of  intensity.  So 
that  the  leader  is  enjoined  by  Paul  to  be  a  veritable  flame 
of  fire,  a  burning  and  a  shining  light.  In  short,  he  is  to 
be  so  surcharged  with  radiant  energy  as  to  be  able  to  fire 


1 82  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


all  his  followers  with  the  same  devotion  and  fuse  them  into  a 
glowing  fellowship  of  service,  in  which  all  their  personal  aims 
and  interests  shall  be  subservient  to  his,  which  are  quite  other 
and  corporate  ends.  The  faculty  of  leadership  is  a  dis¬ 
tinct  endowment.  The  man  who  possesses  it  wields  a 
sort  of  power,  which  for  want  of  a  better  term  we  call 
'  magnetic.’  It  is  born  with  such  men,  it  grows  with  their 
growth  and  strengthens  with  their  strength.  It  is  potent 
in  every  look  of  the  eye,  in  every  word  of  the  mouth,  in 
every  act  of  the  life.  Other  and  merely  ordinary  men 
yield  to  it  straight  away,  glad  to  range  themselves  under 
the  banner  of  one  who  knows  not  only  where  to  go  and 
how  to  get  there,  but  is  prepared  to  show  the  way.  The 
true  leader  must  combine  these  great  qualities.  He  must 
know,  and  do,  and  dare  ;  indeed,  knowing  and  doing  are 
not  only  logically  but  etymologically  related,  for  the 
word  '  can,’  to  be  able ,  springs  from  the  same  root  as  the 
word  ‘  cunning,’  to  know.  It  is  the  man  who  knows  who 
in  every  age  has  held  the  sceptre  of  rule.  He  may  not 
always  have  been  the  nominal,  but  he  has  always  been 
the  real,  king  of  men.  For  as  we  have  been  often  re¬ 
minded,  in  spite  of  all  appearances  to  the  contrary,  it 
is  the  thinker  that  rules  the  world.  The  leader  is  more 
than  a  thinker,  he  is  a  man  in  whom  thought  has  passed 
into  feeling  and  flashed  into  action.  So  contagious  is  his 
personality  that  all  who  come  within  its  magnetic  field 
become  so  polarized  that  their  wills  are  set  to  achieve  the 
ends  he  seeks.  Therein  lies  the  tremendous  power  of 
the  leader  for  evil  or  for  good.  He  may  be  a  light  to 
illumine,  he  may  be  a  blast  to  destroy.  He  may  win  his 
way  upward  and  prevail,  till,  standing  on  the  topmost 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  LEADERSHIP  183 


crag  of  duty,  he  draws  men  up,  and  out,  and  away  from 
all  thought  of  self  in  the  passion  of  heroic  sacrifice  and  in 
the  cause  of  freedom  or  of  faith  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  may  head  the  way  to  the  abyss,  perverting  the  thought 
and  exploiting  the  emotions  of  men,  using  all  his  splendid 
powers  simply  to  lead  them  like  sheep  to  the  shambles, 
that  he  may  wade  through  their  blood  to  the  goals  of  his 
illicit  desire.  From  all  this  it  is  plain  with  what  a  supreme 
gift  the  leader  of  men  is  endowed.  It  is  the  gift  of  being 
able  to  project  his  more  dominant  personality  upon  the 
mass,  to  make  it  think  as  he  thinks,  to  feel  as  he  feels,  to 
follow  as  he  leads.  He  voices  for  them  what  they  have 
often  felt.  He  enables  them  to  envisage  their  own 
hitherto  vague  and  indefinable  ideals.  He  articulates 
what  they  believe  but  cannot  express,  so  that  they  forth' 
with  surrender  themselves  to  him  and  accept  him  as  the 
exponent  of  their  innermost  feelings  and  desires.  The 
true  leader,  then,  does  not  merely  draw  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  the  multitude  up  into  himself  and  embody 
them,  he  sends  likewise  his  own  thought  and  feeling  down 
amongst  them  to  mingle  with  theirs  so  that  he  unifies, 
organizes,  and  directs  them  at  will.  A  mere  crowd- 
exponent  differs  from  a  crowd-leader,  just  as  a  news¬ 
paper  that  merely  mirrors  opinion  differs  from  one  that 
shapes  it.  Now,  according  to  Paul,  this  gift  of  leadership 
is  one  of  the  distinct  functions  to  be  exercised  within  the 
Christian  Church.  It  is  given  to  some  pre-eminently  to 
shape  the  thinking,  and,  through  the  thinking,  the  practice 
of  their  fellows.  Such  a  power  as  we  have  seen  carries 
tremendous  risks,  both  personal  and  social — personal  to 
the  thought-leader  himself,  in  the  way  of  developing  an 


1 84  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


over  self-consciousness,  with  an  accompanying  self- 
inflation,  and  also  in  creating  a  temptation  to  turn  his 
advantage  to  selfish  ends,  which  if  yielded  to  must  issue 
in  self-defeat.  Because  after  all  leadership  presupposes  a 
common  end  to  be  served,  a  common  purpose  to  be 
achieved,  a  common  good  to  be  gained.  This  principle 
lies  so  deep  as  to  be  absolutely  fundamental  to  the  ques¬ 
tion  we  are  discussing,  so  that  here  the  corporate  ideal 
with  which  the  apostle  set  out  appears  in  the  most 
natural  manner  as  the  all-con  trolling  thought.  The 
function  of  leadership  depends  for  its  existence  and 
exercise  on  three  great  working  principles  :  the  principle 
of  inter-relation,  the  principle  of  co-ordination,  and  the 
principle  of  destination  to  some  great  crowning  and 
justifying  end.  Never  in  its  history  was  the  world  more 
in  need  of  wise  and  capable  leadership  both  in  spiritual  and 
political  spheres  than  it  is  to-day.  The  substitution  of 
party  for  great  national  ideals  and  the  pursuit  of  personal 
in  place  of  public  aims  is  one  of  the  most  grave  and 
menacing  evils  of  our  modern  civilization.  It  is  eating 
like  a  cancer  into  the  body-politic  and  threatening  the 
entire  fabric  with  corruption  and  decay.  The  shocking 
waste  and  mis-appropriation  of  national  funds  in  political 
jobs,  the  exploitation  of  the  public  purse  in  unproductive 
works,  the  reckless  borrowing  and  still  more  reckless 
spending  of  public  money,  and  the  piling  up  of  national 
debts  that  must  saddle  the  future  with  burdens  too 
grievous  to  be  borne,  are  all  due  to  blind  leaders  whose 
eyes  have  been  dimmed  with  dust  of  gold.  What  is 
needed  supremely  is  straight,  clean,  unselfish  men,  utterly 
clear  of  craft  and  graft,  who  will  couple  with  unclouded 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  LEADERSHIP  185 


vision  of  the  nation’s  needs,  a  whole-hearted  determination 
to  rescue  it  from  the  pathless  jungle  in  which  it  wanders 
hopeless  and  perplexed.  There  is  nothing  more  pathetic 
than  the  sight  of  a  man,  born  to  lead  his  fellows  into 
larger  liberties  and  ampler  fields  of  service,  renouncing 
his  early  ideals  and  trailing  his  high  commission  in  the 
dust.  Robert  Browning  has  expressed  the  feeling  of  all 
true  lovers  of  reform  as  he  mourns  the  defection  of  Words¬ 
worth  in  f  The  Lost  Leader,’  through  which  there  throbs 
the  pain  of  what  was  felt  to  be  a  personal  as  well  as  a 
national  loss. 

We  that  had  loved  him  so,  followed  him,  honoured  him. 
Lived  in  his  mild  and  magnificent  eye. 

Learned  his  great  language,  caught  his  clear  accents. 

Made  him  our  pattern  to  live  and  to  die  ! 

Shakespeare  was  of  us,  Milton  was  for  us. 

Burns,  Shelley,  were  with  us  ;  they  watch  from  their  graves. 

He  alone  breaks  from  the  van  and  the  freemen. 

He  alone  sinks  to  the  rear  and  the  slaves  ! 

There  is  an  international  side  to  this  question  which 
the  great  war  has  thrown  into  strong  relief.  One  of  the 
issues  involved  in  this  far-flung  strife  is  the  leadership  of 
the  race, — whether  a  truculent  and  conscienceless  might, 
that  will  bruise  all  nations  into  a  common  mould,  for¬ 
bidding  them  the  right  to  treasure  their  own  traditions, 
evolve  their  own  types,  and  work  out  their  own  destiny, 
shall  bestride  the  world  ;  or  whether  a  beneficent  alliance 
that  shall  guarantee  to  all  nations,  even  the  smallest  and 
most  backward,  the  privilege  of  living  and  developing 
along  their  own  lines,  shaping  their  own  history,  and 
making  their  own  distinctive  contribution  to  the  common 


1 86  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


store,  shall  guide  the  destinies  of  the  race.  To  this 
leadership  we  believe  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  been 
called  of  God  and  ordained,  and  as  long  as  we  continue 
loyal  to  the  great  principles  of  truth  and  righteousness 
will  our  commission  be  kept  in  force.  It  is  Britain’s 
outstanding  gifts  of  leadership,  colonization,  and  admin¬ 
istration,  coupled  with  her  strict  regard  for  honour,  that 
have  placed  her  in  the  van  of  nations  and  entrusted  the 
keys  of  world- wide  empire  to  her  hands.  She  has 
won  the  reputation  among  all  peoples  for  integrity,  and 
her  name  is  the  synonym  for  straightforwardness  and 
candour  in  all  the  markets  of  the  world.  But  a  reputa¬ 
tion  can  be  lost  whether  it  be  that  of  a  nation  or  an 
individual.  We  of  this  generation  did  not  achieve  this 
record,  we  simply  inherited  it.  It  was  our  fathers  who 
won  this  name  and  fame.  But  though  we  did  not  win  it, 
we  can  lose  it,  though  we  did  not  make  Britain’s  name  we 
can  mar  it ;  and  the  call  to-day  is  for  loyalty  to  all  that  is 
best  in  our  traditions,  lest  we  forfeit  our  leadership. 
Better,  as  Seeley  points  out,  *  that  we  should  recede 
commercially  than  default  morally.’  This  is  the  leader¬ 
ship  we  should  covet,  daring  at  any  and  every  cost  to  do 
the  right,  and  showing  to  all  peoples  the  ‘  things  that 
are  more  excellent  ’ : 

The  grace  of  friendship — mind  and  heart 
Linked  with  their  fellow  heart  and  mind  ; 

The  gains  of  science,  gifts  of  art ; 

The  sense  of  oneness  with  our  kind  ; 

The  thirst  to  know  and  understand 
A  large  and  liberal  discontent. 

These  are  the  goods  in  life’s  rich  hand. 

The  things  that  are  more  excellent. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  LEADERSHIP  187 


We  as  a  nation  know  these  truths  ;  we  confess  our  faith 
in  them  ;  they  are  among  the  common-places  of  our  creed. 
The  moral  qualities  which  have  thrust  us  into  the  fore¬ 
front  of  history  alone  can  keep  us  there.  Let  it  be  seen 
that  when  all  is  said  and  done,  these  are  the  things  in 
which  we  glory  most.  Not  in  our  literature,  in  our  science, 
our  art,  or  our  commerce,  not  in  the  strength  of  our 
armies,  the  efficiency  of  our  navy,  the  extent  of  our 
territory  or  the  breadth  of  our  sway  ;  but  in  this,  that,  as 
a  people,  we  love  righteousness  and  hate  iniquity. 
According  to  the  Oriental  Press  these  moral  qualities 
are  the  things  that  have  most  deeply  impressed  the 
minds  of  our  far-eastern  allies  the  Japanese,  whom  may 
God  bless  and  save. 

Here  is  an  extract  from  a  Japanese  judgement  on  the 
British  nation,  as  published  in  Shimpo  Fuji,  a  Tokio  journal, 
by  Baron  Iwanaki,  on  his  return  from  a  visit  to  Europe 
and  America.  Discoursing  on  the  theme  that  Japan  is 
still  far  behind  the  nations  of  the  West,  the  Japanese 
statesman  remarked  :  ‘  Let  us  take  the  English  people  as 
an  example.  The  individuals  of  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  are  distinguished  no  less  for  their  strict  morals 
than  for  the  dignity  and  propriety  of  their  manners. 
Whatever  may  be  the  work  they  are  engaged  in,  they 
bring  to  it  a  keen  sense  of  responsibility  and  attention, 
together  with  honesty  and  faithfulness.  They  are 
likewise  remarkable  for  their  strict  observance  of  dis¬ 
tinctions  between  public  and  private  matters.  The  most 
noteworthy  characteristic  about  them  is  that  when  once 
they  engage  in  an  enterprise  they  pursue  their  object  with 
such  dogged  perseverance  that  they  never  know  rest 


188  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


until,  brushing  all  difficulties  aside,  they  finally  achieve 
success.  Such  being  the  character  of  the  English  people 
they  have  a  high  sense  of  honour,  and  regard  a  breach  of 
promise,  be  the  matter  important  or  trifling,  as  the  height 
of  enormity.  Even  in  England,  with  its  millions  of  in¬ 
habitants  and  a  multitude  of  large  and  busy  towns 
immoral  and  abandoned  characters  are,  of  course,  to  be 
found,  not  only  among  the  people  of  the  lower  classes,  but 
even  among  those  occupying  high  positions  in  society. 
What  I  mean  is  the  prevailing  moral  tone  among  the 
middle  and  upper  classes  is  so  healthy,  and  constitutes 
such  a  powerful  influence  as  a  social  sanction,  that  any¬ 
body  falling  under  the  general  standard  forfeits  the 
esteem  and  society  of  his  fellow  men,  before  whom  he  can 
never  again  hold  up  his  head.  This  is  now  the  moral 
tone  prevailing  among  the  upper  classes,  and  it  has 
extended  its  wholesome  influence  to  the  other  sections 
of  society/ 

The  Baron  then  moralizes  to  the  disadvantage  of  his 
fellow-countrymen,  and  concludes  :  '  England  is  reputed 
to  be  the  freest  country  in  Europe ;  and  yet  English 
gentlemen  are  not  noted,  like  the  Japanese,  for  any  want 
of  restraint  in  their  conduct.  The  characteristics  of  the 
English  as  already  described,  are  their  dignified  carriage, 
the  purity  of  their  private  life,  their  love  of  truth  and 
honour,  and  their  amenableness  to  discipline  and  law. 
These  characteristics  also  constitute  the  essence  of  free¬ 
dom.  Japan  has  taken  England  as  her  model  in  the 
progress  of  the  material  side  of  civilization,  and  why 
should  we  not  follow  England's  example  in  matters  of  the 
spirit  ?  ’ 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  LEADERSHIP  189 


Why  not,  indeed  ?  Who  will  not  pray  that  our  alhance 
with  Japan  may  lead  to  her  wholehearted  acceptance  of 
Christ  ?  It  is  for  work  of  this  kind  that  we  have  been  so 
richly  dowered,  that  we  may  plant  out  the  great  principles 
of  truth  and  righteousness,  of  honour,  and  fair-play  among 
the  backward  nations  of  the  earth,  so  that  with  our  moral 
meridian  there  may  come  the  freedom  and  blessedness 
of  universal  man. 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


7 

The  Function  of  Consolation 

*  He  that  showeth  mercy,  with  cheerfulness. — Rom.  xii.  8.' 

The  showing  of  mercy,  or  the  administration  of  conso¬ 
lation  and  relief,  whether  bodily  or  spiritual,  is  here 
assumed  by  Paul  to  be  an  integral  part  of  Church  work, 
a  definite  function  of  the  organized  body  of  Christ. 

At  first  sight  it  might  appear  as  if  the  apostle  were  a 
little  inclined  to  the  over-specialization  of  function  in 
thus  making  a  distinct  department  of  what  should  be  a 
general  practice.  But  while  it  may  be  true  that  the 
showing  of  mercy  is  a  business  in  which  each  individual 
is  expected  to  bear  a  hand,  just  as  we  saw  that  in  the 
function  of  giving  every  one  should  have  a  share,  yet  in 
this  case  as  in  that,  there  are  those  who  are  specially 
gifted  by  temperament  and  disposition  to  minister  to 
distress  and  soothe  the  troubled  in  heart. 

Without  doubt  the  apostle  had  witnessed  the  more  or 
less  clumsy  attempts  at  consolation  by  well-meaning 
but  tactless  people  who  had  succeeded  only  in  aggravating 
the  grief  they  sought  to  allay. 

Of  all  classes  of  Christian  work  this  requires  to  be 
handled  with  the  greatest  delicacy  of  feeling  and  tender¬ 
ness  of  touch.  It  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  so  to 
proffer  help  or  sympathy  as  to  embitter  the  feelings  and 
positively  alienate  those  who  are  sought  to  be  relieved. 
Even  where  these  dangers  are  avoided  there  is  often  such 
an  absence  of  atmosphere  in  the  act  of  showing  mercy, 
such  mere  machine-like  contact  with  the  case,  that  it 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  CONSOLATION  191 


really  becomes  a  case  rather  than  a  personality ,  and  its 
treatment  blesses  neither  him  that  gives  nor  him  that 
takes.  It  may  therefore  be  gathered  from  the  place 
Paul  assigns  to  this  function,  that  in  his  opinion  it  should 
not  be  left  to  be  exercised  promiscuously  by  any  and 
every  member  of  the  Church,  irrespective  of  personal 
fitness  for  its  discharge.  Thus  while  every  one  may  be 
expected  to  contribute  in  the  way  of  providing  means 
of  relief,  yet  its  administration  should  be  confined  to 
those  whose  personal  qualities  of  sweetness  and  light 
generate  such  an  atmosphere  of  hopefulness  and  radiant 
good  cheer,  as  will  not  only  heighten  the  value  of  the  gift  to 
an  immeasurable  degree,  but  reinforce  the  recipient  who 
through  misfortune  or  fault  has  fallen  on  evil  times. 
There  are  those  who  by  reason  of  their  strong  faith  in 
God  have  a  boundless  faith  in  their  fellow-men.  Their 
courage  in  facing  the  problem  of  poverty  and  distress 
rises  in  the  scale  of  the  difficulties  they  present.  Such 
are  the  souls  to  whom  this  duty  should  be  assigned  ;  men 
and  women  overflowing  with  sympathy,  whom  no  cold¬ 
ness  can  chill,  no  indifference  dishearten,  no  insolence 
rebuff,  no  ingratitude  sour,  no  suspicion  dismay.  Nor 
is  it  merely  sufficient  to  possess  this  daring  hope,  this 
unflinching  courage,  this  buoyant  faith  ;  these  must  dis¬ 
play  themselves  in  a  cheerful  alacrity  of  service,  a  positive 
hilarity  of  feeling  and  manner,  because  these  accom¬ 
paniments  of  the  gift  are  often  of  infinitely  more  value 
than  the  gift  itself. 

Courage  is  as  contagious  as  cowardice,  health  is  as 
communicable  as  disease,  and  the  worker  in  this  depart¬ 
ment  requires  qualities  that  will  so  react  on  those  whose 


192 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


moral  or  material  betterment  he  is  seeking  to  effect,  as 
will  wake  up  every  slumbering  ally  in  their  nature,  and 
rally  it  to  the  flag. 

Now  it  is  exceedingly  significant  that  the  Greek  word 
employed  by  the  apostle  in  this  passage,  and  which  is 
here  translated  ‘cheerfulness/  is  one  with  which  the 
people  would  always  associate  the  festivals  which  cele¬ 
brate  the  return  of  Spring.  It  was  finked  up  in  their 
minds  with  the  re-birth  of  nature  and  her  emergence 
in  beauty  and  fragrance  from  the  grave  of  winter  in 
which  she  had  been  entombed.  It  was  therefore  charged 
with  all  the  happy  auguries  and  hopes  which  we  associate 
with  this  season  of  the  year.  But  these  festivals  were 
also  deeply  religious  and  were  celebrated  by  the  Greeks 
out  of  gratitude  at  their  acceptance  with  the  gods,  of 
whose  favour  the  springing  grass  and  budding  trees  were 
merely  the  outward  and  visible  sign.  Indeed  the  deep, 
underlying  meaning  of  the  word  for  cheerfulness  is  the 
rapture  that  springs  out  of  conscious  reconciliation  with 
the  Supreme.  This  is  clear  from  the  fact  that  it  is 
derived  from  the  same  word  which  is  translated 
*  propitiation  ’  in  the  passage  ‘  He  is  the  propitiation 
for  our  sins  and  not  for  ours  only  but  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world/  From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  cheer¬ 
fulness  here  indicated  is  not  a  mere  emotion,  still  less  is 
it  something  merely  put  on  or  assumed;  it  is  a  deeply 
inward,  spiritual  quality,  a  well-spring  within  the  heart, 
which,  because  it  has  its  source  in  the  great  Heart  of 
Christ,  rises  like  a  fountain  night  and  day,  till  it  fills  and 
floods  the  whole  personality  with  a  tide  of  great  goodwill 
which  flows  forth  wave  on  wave  to  bless  and  enrich  the 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  CONSOLATION  193 


barren  lives  of  men.  Or  to  change  the  metaphor,  this 
innate  cheerfulness  irradiates  the  whole  personality  with 
a  new  and  beauteous  light  which  comes  to  its  focal  point 
in  the  countenance,  making  the  face  to  shine  with  such 
a  gracious  and  sunny  hopefulness,  that  by  its  very 
winsomeness  it  prevails  against  the  powers  of  darkness 
and  despair. 

This  must  surely  be  the  reason  for  Dr.  Way’s  singularly 
happy  translation  of  our  text  :  '  If  you  come  with 

sympathy  for  sorrow,  bring  God’s  sunlight  in  your  face.’ 
This  is  no  mere  figure  of  speech,  this  outward  radiance 
which  is  generated  by  the  inward  spirit  of  goodwill  is 
one  of  the  profoundest  psychological  facts. 

Spenser,  in  his  Faerie  Queen,  when  he  would  show  the 
inward  truth  and  beauty  of  Una’s  soul,  describes  how 


From  her  fair  head  her  fillet  she  undight 
And  laid  her  stole  aside.  Her  Angel’s  face 
As  the  great  eye  of  heaven  shyned  bright 
And  made  a  sunshine  in  the  shady  place. 

Dante  in  his  imaginary  journey  through  the  Paradiso 
describes  how  the  goodwill  of  one  of  the  angels  was  con¬ 
veyed  to  him  through  this  outshining  of  the  inner  radiance : 

Another  of  those  splendours 
Approached  me,  and  its  will  to  pleasure  me 
It  signified  by  brightening  outwardly, 

As  one  delighted  to  do  good  ; 

Became  a  thing  transplendent  in  my  sight. 

As  a  fine  ruby  smitten  by  the  sun. 


Thus,  then,  to  be  able  to  resuscitate  in  the  man  that  is 
down  and  out,  a  belief  that  even  for  him  there  are  still 
13 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


possibilities  of  recovery,  to  kindle  anew  the  flame  of 
endeavour  in  those  who  have  given  up  the  struggle,  to 
bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to  awaken  determination 
in  the  men  and  women  whose  wills  have  been  paralysed 
into  torpor,  this  is  a  function  reserved  for  those  whose 
stream  of  hopeful  joy  is  running  so  deep  and  full  as  to 
overflow  into  the  empty  and  desolate  wastes  of  human 
life,  and  make  them  fragrant  and  fruitful  as  the  Garden 
of  the  Lord. 

No  man  had  better  touch  this  work  unless  he  has  this 
divine  hopefulness,  and  can  see  the  possible  good  in  men 
however  far  from  God,  else  he  will  only  reduce  the  work¬ 
ing  efficiency  of  his  comrades  by  his  forecasts  of  failure, 
while  the  already  despondent,  with  regard  to  whom  he 
has  lost  heart,  will  be  driven  into  deeper  depths  of  despair. 
Paul  says  elsewhere  ‘  We  are  saved  by  Hope /  he  speaks 
of  God  as  the  ‘  God  of  Hope/  and  those  who  have  drunk 
most  deeply  of  His  Spirit  and  entered  most  fully  into 
His  redeeming  purpose  can  never  give  way  to  despair. 
Moreover,  as  we  have  seen,  their  hope  will  shine  in  their 
faces  and  radiate  from  their  entire  personality,  creating 
an  atmosphere  of  moral  hygiene,  so  that  in  their  presence 
and  company  men  will  feel  that  to  be  possible  which,  in 
the  company  of  other  and  less  courageous  souls,  nothing 
could  ever  induce  them  to  attempt. 

Personalities  are  stimulative  or  depressant,  dynamic 
or  static,  locomotives  or  dead-weight  trucks ;  and  while 
each  class  may  be  helpful  in  its  time  and  place,  neither 
can  be  substituted  for  the  other,  and  your  depressing 
dead-weight  brother  must  not  be  assigned  the  task  of 
lightening  the  burden  of  those  who  are  oppressed  and 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  CONSOLATION  195 


heavy  of  heart.  He  will  only  succeed  in  weighting  them 
with  lead,  where  your  happy-hearted,  buoyant  brother 
will  wing  them  for  joyous  flight. 

Now  if  ever  there  was  a  call  for  this  ministry  of  comfort 
and  encouragement  it  is  to-day,  when  the  heart  of  the 
world  is  tom  with  anguish  and  millions  of  homes  lie 
under  the  shadow  of  death.  While  it  may  be  true  that 
we  are  not  all  gifted  in  giving  inspiration  to  others  and 
making  them  feel  that  in  spite  of  failure  and  defeat  life 
is  still  worth  while,  yet  we  can  at  least  refrain  from  dis¬ 
couraging  them.  The  burden  that  the  world  is  bearing 
is  quite  heavy  enough  without  having  it  increased  by  the 
gloomy  forecasts  of  pessimistic  and  dispirited  souls ; 
while  those  who  are  seeking  to  hearten  the  world  and 
cheer  it  on  to  fresh  attempts  might  at  least  be  spared  the 
critical  depreciation  of  their  Christly  work. 

Let  us  give  our  blessing  to  every  labourer,  of  whatever 
designation,  who  is  honestly  striving  to  make  the  little 
bit  of  earth  whereon  he  lives  the  better  for  his  stay.  But 
there  are  those  who  are  humanly  fitted  to  do  this  work  of 
cheering  up  and  on,  whose  gifts  have  been  allowed  to  fall 
into  disuse,  with  the  result  that  many  a  lonely  soul  has 
missed  the  kindly  word  or  the  helping  hand,  when  its 
timely  offer  would  have  made  all  the  difference  between 
victory  and  defeat. 

Now  the  English  word  *  mercy  ’  in  our  text  springs 
from  the  same  root  as  the  word  ‘  miserable/  and  this  is 
deeply  suggestive.  It  looks  as  though  the  evolution  of 
the  word  ‘  mercy  ’  from  ‘  misery  ’  marked  in  etymology 
the  path  of  the  process  in  psychology  by  which  the 
merciful  man  has  become  merciful,  through  putting  himself 


1 96  DIFFERENTIATION  OF  FUNCTION 


in  the  place  of  the  miserable  man,  till  by  thought  and 
feeling  he  has  become  one  with  him,  and  thus  made  his 
less  fortunate  brother’s  griefs  his  own.  Now  it  is  only 
the  strong  and  joyous  soul  who  has  strength  and  buoyancy 
to  spare  that  is  fitted  for  this  work.  I  do  not  mean,  of 
course,  that  such  a  soul  should  not  itself  have  suffered, 
but  it  must  not  have  gone  under,  and  because  of  this  it  is 
able  to  help.  The  submerged  cannot  help  the  submerged 
to  rise,  though  they  may  help  them  to  endure.  Two 
depressants  will  not  evolve  a  stimulant,  and  work  of  this 
type  will  make  such  a  drain  upon  the  sympathies  and 
courage  of  the  worker  that  it  is  little  wonder  the  apostle 
should  have  specialized  this  department  in  the  Christian 
Church.  It  is  a  class  of  work  which  not  only  must  not  be 
left  to  chance,  but  should  be  committed  to  the  very  choicest 
souls.  Some  people,  well-intentioned  enough,  spoil  every¬ 
thing  they  do  by  a  singular  ungraciousness  of  manner. 
In  such  a  case  it  would  be  infinitely  better  for  this  class  to 
make  some  loving  and  pleasantly  dispositioned  personality 
the  channel  of  their  distribution.  Some  people  are 
temperamentally  cold  and  distant,  some  abrupt  and 
off-hand  in  manner,  others  again  are  awkwardly  self- 
conscious,  making  every  one  with  whom  they  deal  feel 
ill  at  ease.  Indeed  there  are  very  few  who  are  able  so  to 
approach  a  wounded  and  sensitive  soul  as  to  minister 
healing  and  hope. 

But  the  Church  has  a  distinct  mission  to  the  mourner. 
For  what  else  has  she  been  anointed  to  her  high  office,  if 
not  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor,  to  heal  the  broken¬ 
hearted,  to  follow  in  His  steps  who  bore  the  world’s 
sorrows  and  carried  its  grief  ?  The  Church  that  does  not 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  CONSOLATION  197 


multiply  points  of  contact  with  the  sorrowful,  dejected, 
and  defeated,  to  open  up  for  them  a  way  of  hope  through 
the  gate  of  the  gospel,  will  soon  be  put  out  of  commission. 
But  it  must  seek  to  raise  men  by  putting  them  on  the 
highway  of  holiness.  Mere  bodily  relief  after  all  is  only  a 
palliative,  it  does  not  touch  the  seat  of  the  trouble.  It  is 
not  anodynes  that  the  world  requires,  but  to  be  brought 
into  touch  with  God  as  He  reveals  Himself  in  Jesus  Christ. 
Those  who  discharge  this  function  of  showing  mercy  must 
never  stop  short  of  this,  for  when  all  is  said  and  done,  what 
mercy  can  compare  with  that  of  bringing  the  troubled 
soul  into  the  presence  of  the  Eternal  Mercy  Himself,  that 
there  it  may  be  taken  to  His  heart,  and  like  a  tired  child 
he  back  on  the  bosom  of  the  Infinite  Love  ! 


V 


REPRODUCTION  ;  OR,  THE  MISSIONARY 

IMPERATIVE 

The  Church  that  does  not  reproduce,  that  is  not  mission¬ 
ary,  is  weaving  her  own  shroud.  The  first  great  impera¬ 
tive  imposed  upon  all  fife  in  the  beginning  of  days — ‘  Be 
fruitful  and  multiply  ' — is  laid  upon  her,  and  where  she 
ceases  to  function  as  a  self-propagating  force,  she  is  found 
to  perish.  Bushnell  has  pointed  out  that  there  should 
be  two  methods  of  growth  proceeding  in  every  healthy 
Church,  growth  by  conquest  from  without  and  by  popu¬ 
lation  from  within.1  Any  organism  that  refuses  right-of- 
way  to  fife  by  denying  it  facilities  for  transmission  com¬ 
mits  a  breach  of  trust.  Nowhere  is  life  a  possession  simply 
to  be  enjoyed.  It  is  a  stewardship  to  be  sacredly  worked 
so  as  to  be  a  centre  of  transmitted  vital  energy.  An 
organism  is  a  temporary  foothold  employed  by  life  for 
the  purpose  of  self -propagation.  Through  loyalty  to 
this  law  of  reproduction  it  is  enabled  to  pay  its  debt  to 
the  past  in  the  only  possible  way,  by  endowing  the  future. 
Every  living  unit  thus  stands  between  the  past  and  the 
future,  with  obligations  to  both  which  it  cannot  evade 
without  being  guilty  of  default.  It  was  this  default 
of  which  Israel  was  guilty,  and  whose  consequent 


1  Spiritual  Nurture  (Bushnell). 
198 


REPRODUCTION 


199 


condemnation  and  doom  Christ  foreshadowed  in  the 
parable  of  the  Barren  Fig  Tree.  Here  was  a  structure 
which  life  had  reared  for  the  express  purpose  of  serving 
as  a  receiving  and  transmitting  station.  But  what  was  re¬ 
ceived  was  not  passed  on.  It  was  simply  pocketed.  The 
tree  thereby  forfeited  its  right  to  continuance  just  as 
would  any  carrying  firm  that  opened  and  appropriated 
parcels  with  which  it  had  been  entrusted,  instead  of  for¬ 
warding  them  to  their  respective  destinations.  Where 
it  should  have  given  unto  life  facilities  to  express  itself  in 
fruit  whose  seed  should  be  in  itself  after  its  kind,  it  inter¬ 
dicted  the  process,  diverting  the  vital  forces  from  their 
reproductive  functions,  so  that  they  lost  themselves  and 
perished,  veritable  ‘  Babes  in  the  Wood/  whose  burial 
place  it  had  covered  up  with  leaves.  Life  instead  of  being 
cradled  found  itself  coffined.  It  was  a  case  of  'no-exit/ 
and  the  tragedy  of  the  situation  was  that  its  entrapping 
foe  was  of  its  own  household.  Its  properly  constituted 
guardian  became  guilty  of  misappropriation,  impounding 
and  turning  to  its  own  ends  what  it  held  in  trust.  Thus 
its  dependent  ward  was  robbed  of  its  rights,  and  thereby 
disqualified  from  fulfilling  the  law  of  inheritance  and 
bequeathing  the  estate.  Every  living  organism  is 
intended  to  furnish  a  highway  along  which  life  shall 
have  a  straight  and  unimpeded  path  for  propagation. 
Indeed,  whatever  else  may  have  to  suffer,  these 
thoroughfares  must  be  kept  open  and  in  good  repair. 

Christ’s  indictment  of  the  Jewish  nation  was  based  on 
their  failure  in  this  regard.  They  had  been  '  planted  in 
a  very  fruitful  hill/  and  constituted  the  trustees  of  a 
great  faith,  which  through  them  was  intended  by  God 


200 


REPRODUCTION;  OR 


to  become  the  religion  of  the  race.  In  the  seed  of  faith¬ 
ful  Abraham  were  all  the  nations  to  be  blessed.  But 
though  Israel  thus  possessed  the  true  faith,  instead  of 
holding  it  as  a  stewardship  for  all  the  world  she  failed  to 
propagate  it.  She  put  forth  no  fruit  for  the  passer-by.  A 
few  of  her  prophets  struck  the  universal  note,  but  the 
nation  never  rallied  to  their  call.  They  kept  the  know¬ 
ledge  of  the  true  and  only  God  to  themselves.  Conse¬ 
quently,  the  idolatries  which  they  failed  to  influence  for 
good  influenced  them  for  ill.  Israel  had  not  only  a  finer 
ethic  than  her  neighbours,  but  springing  out  of  it  a  better 
social  system  and  sanitary  code.  Had  she  laid  herself 
out  to  universalize  the  knowledge  of  God  the  reflex  result 
on  her  own  character  would  have  been  elevating  and 
consolidating.  As  it  was,  she  became  so  feebly  com¬ 
promising  as  to  attempt  a  combination  service  of  Jehovah 
and  the  Gods  of  the  surrounding  nations.  This,  of  course, 
was  the  line  of  least  resistance  ;  she  relaxed  her  conduct 
with  the  loosening  of  her  creed,  substituted  form  for 
spirit,  semblance  for  reality,  and  employed  the  very 
ordinances  of  her  religion  as  a  subterfuge  under  cover 
of  which  she  practised  the  selfsame  abominations  against 
which  she  was  elected  to  protest.  The  result  was  in¬ 
evitable  ;  her  commission  was  cancelled  and  the  doom 
of  displacement  fell.  The  faith  that  is  not  missionary 
becomes  moribund,  and  Israel,  falling  a  victim  to  her 
own  selfishness,  like  the  barren  fig-tree  of  the  parable, 
as  a  world-power  withered  away.  Trees  have  from  time 
immemorial  been  employed  to  symbolize  the  ideal  life, 
both  individual  and  social.  *  The  righteous  shall  flourish 
like  the  palm  tree  and  grow  like  a  cedar  in  Lebanon/ 


THE  MISSIONARY  IMPERATIVE 


201 


and  again,  *  He  shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the  rivers 
of  water.'  Indeed,  so  natural  does  it  seem  to  think  of 
the  social  organism  under  this  similitude  that  family 
lineage  and  the  inter-relations  of  houses,  dynasties,  and 
generations  are  more  often  than  not  set  forth  under  the 
figure  of  a  genealogical  tree.  The  biological  analogy  is 
as  beautiful  as  it  is  striking,  for  the  roots  of  the  tree,  like 
those  of  the  social  organism,  are  struck  into  the  soil  of 
the  dead  past,  its  branches  wave  in  the  living  present, 
while  its  flowers  and  fruits  pass  on  to  the  future  the 
promise  and  the  potency  of  forests  yet  to  be. 

Scientific  investigation  has  proved  that  every  tree, 
in  spite  of  all  appearance  to  the  contrary,  comes  to  bloom. 
For  a  long  time  it  was  thought  that  the  yew-tree  was  an 
exception  to  this  rule,  and  it  was  probably  on  account 
of  its  apparently  perpetual  gloom  that  it  was  selected 
as  the  symbol  of  sorrow,  and  became  the  chosen  church¬ 
yard  tree.  Tennyson  finely  employs  this  change  of 
opinion  with  regard  to  the  yew-tree’s  gloom  to  illustrate 
the  change  through  which  the  gloom  of  his  great  sorrow 
passed  with  the  passing  of  the  years.  At  first  his  grief 
at  Hallam’s  death  appeared  as  if  it  never  could  take  on 
a  different  view,  and  so  he  despondently  sings  : 


Old  yew,  which  graspest  at  the  stones 
That  name  the  underlying  dead, 
Thy  fibres  net  the  dreamless  head, 
Thy  roots  are  wrapt  about  the  bones. 

The  seasons  bring  the  flower  again, 
And  bring  the  firstling  to  the  flock  ; 
And  in  the  dusk  of  thee,  the  clock 
Beats  out  the  little  lives  of  men. 


202 


REPRODUCTION;  OR 


O  not  for  thee  the  glow,  the  bloom, 

Who  changest  not  in  any  gale, 

Nor  branding  summer  suns  avail 

To  touch  thy  thousand  years  of  gloom. 

And  gazing  on  thee,  sullen  tree, 

Sick  for  thy  stubborn  hardihood, 

I  seem  to  fail  from  out  my  blood 

And  grow  incorporate  into  thee. 

But  as  time  passed  on  he  had  to  correct  this  early  opinion 
about  the  yew,  even  as  he  had  to  correct  his  early  opinion 
about  the  hopelessness  of  his  grief.  And  so  in  vastly 
different  mood  he  revisits  the  churchyard  and  addresses 
the  ancient  tree  in  altered  terms  : 

Old  warder  of  these  buried  bones, 

And  answering  now  my  random  stroke 
With  fruitful  cloud  and  living  smoke. 

Dark  yew  that  graspest  at  the  stones. 

And  dippest  toward  the  dreamless  head, 

To  thee,  too,  comes  the  golden  hour 
When  flower  is  feeling  after  flower  ; 

But  Sorrow — fixt  upon  the  dead, 

And  darkening  the  dark  graves  of  men — 

What  whisper’d  from  her  lying  lips  ? 

Thy  gloom  is  kindled  at  the  tips. 

And  passes  into  gloom  again. 

Blossom,  then,  here  as  everywhere,  is  the  symbol  of  hope, 
and  holds  the  promise  of  the  future  forests  in  its  fragrant 
hands,  for  flower  and  seed  are  linked  up  by  the  great 
law  of  succession.  The  blossom  swings  as  a  cradle  for 
the  slowly  forming  seed,  and  by  the  rich  colouring  of  its 
hangings,  its  overflow  of  nectar,  and  its  disengagement 
of  perfume,  it  secures  for  the  seed  the  ministry  of  bees  and 


THE  MISSIONARY  IMPERATIVE 


203 


other  insects  whose  visits  enrich  both  themselves  and 
the  flowers  they  enter.  That  the  tiny  ovule  which 
gathers  up  and  enfolds  the  vital  principle  for  the  purpose 
of  its  transmission  may  thus  have  all  that  the  season 
can  bring  it,  not  only  in  the  normal  way  of  light  and 
heat,  moisture  and  air,  but  in  adventitious  aids  through 
imported  pollen,  the  blossom  flies  its  flag  of  welcome, 
in  purple  or  silver  or  gold,  spreads  its  feast  of  nectar, 
and  flings  abroad  its  perfumed  invitations  to  the  winged 
wanderers  from  flower  to  flower.  In  the  give  and  take 
of  this  happy  commerce  each  is  enriched,  and  thus  the 
summer’s  scented  bloom  serves  as  a  symbol  of  that  ideal 
social  life  in  which  no  one’s  gain  involves  another’s  loss, 
but  each  contributes  to  the  good  of  all,  and  the  good  of 
all  is  fully  shared  by  each.  The  gold  and  silver  glory 
of  the  blossoming  trees  is  the  beautiful  and  fragrant 
expression  of  life’s  loyalty  to  the  law  of  succession,  under 
the  pressure  of  which  the  vital  principle  demands  of  the 
organism  in  which  it  for  the  time  resides,  a  right-of-way 
along  which  it  pours  its  reproductive  powers.  Thus, 
then,  as  we  pierce  beneath  all  this  seeming  gaiety  and 
wantonness,  this  riot  and  revel  of  feast  and  fragrance, 
of  colour  and  contour,  we  see  how  deeply  serious  is  the 
business  for  which  it  stands.  It  is  life’s  supreme  effort 
to  fulfil  its  stewardship. 

Every  fragrant  bloom  is  a  declaration  of  trust,  an 
acknowledgement  that  life  is  what  in  legal  phrase  is 
described  as  ‘  An  estate  in  tale  general  ’ — that  is  to  say, 
it  is  not  a  mere  possession  to  be  frittered  and  fooled  away 
at  will,  but  a  deposit  to  be  held  in  trust  for  posterity  and 
bequeathed  unencumbered  and  unspoiled.  Hence  the 


204 


REPRODUCTION;  OR 


endless  adjustments,  utilities,  precautions,  adaptations, 
and  contrivances,  which  are  called  into  play  for  the 
purpose  of  effecting  the  transmission  of  the  life  forces, 
and  in  such  a  form  as  will  secure  both  their  fullest  fertiliza¬ 
tion  and  their  widest  spread.  Such  is  the  pressure  of 
this  law  that  even  at  the  cost  of  life  itself  the  tree  will  die 
rather  than  disobey.  That  is  to  say,  if  there  be  not 
sufficient  vitality  for  both  life  and  fruit,  and  the  tree  has 
to  choose  whether  it  shall  live  and  prove  disloyal  to  the 
law  of  reproduction  or  die  in  the  attempt  to  pass  on  the 
torch  of  life,  it  will  prefer  to  die.  Yignerons  with  whom 
I  have  spoken  assure  me  that  they  have  taken  advantage 
of  this  fact  in  their  treatment  of  vines  that  have  not  been 
doing  their  best.  By  making  a  cincture  in  the  bark  they 
have  scared  a  dilatory  vine  into  the  notion  that  it  was 
about  to  die,  and  immediately  it  has  hurried  up,  and 
doubled  its  output  in  the  way  of  fruit,  whose  seed  was  in 
itself  after  its  kind.  In  discussing  this  question  some 
months  ago  with  Professor  Perkins  of  South  Australia, 
he  assured  me  from  statistics  that  he  held  that  the  year 
before  the  vines  perished  in  France  through  phylloxera, 
they  appeared  to  have  a  premonition  of  the  coming  end, 
and  gathered  themselves  up  for  a  supreme  and  final 
effort,  as  much  as  to  say,  ‘  Well,  even  if  we  must  die,  we 
will  at  least  secure  the  generation  that  is  to  come/  with 
the  result  that  the  vintage  of  that  year  far  and  away 
surpassed  every  record  previously  put  up.  Here,  then, 
we  see  the  secret  meaning  of  all  this  lavish  output  in 
blossom,  bud,  and  fruit.  It  is  the  sacrificial  principle 
at  work  without  which  there  is  nothing  here  nor  anywhere 
that  is  of  beauty  or  of  worth.  In  the  splendour  of  the 


THE  MISSIONARY  IMPERATIVE 


205 


grass  and  the  glory  of  the  flower  we  see  the  fruit  of 
sacrifice.  Victim  and  priest  in  one,  the  fruit  or  forest 
tree  in  bloom  lays  of  its  best  upon  the  altar,  literally 
pouring  out  its  life  that  it  may  redeem  the  earth  from 
future  barrenness  and  make  the  solitary  places  glad. 

It  is  through  sacrifice  that  ‘  earth  is  crammed  with 
heaven,  and  every  common  bush  afire  with  God/  But 
though  nature  annually  makes  this  great  renunciation, 
there  is  no  sadness  in  her  mood.  She  does  not  appear 
unto  men  to  fast.  She  puts  on  her  beautiful  garments 
and  wears  a  joyful  aspect,  flooding  the  air  with  fragrance 
from  her  myriad  censers  as  she  offers  thus  her  yearly 
sacrifice.  It  is  a  great  and  silent  act  of  worship,  and  as 
she  performs  her  rich  and  stately  ritual  to  the  music  of 
singing  birds,  to  those  who  have  eyes  to  see  and  hearts 
to  understand,  ‘  The  meanest  flower  that  blows,  can  give 
thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears/ 

Now  it  is  with  these  deep-lying  thoughts,  these  mystical 
and  sacramental  meanings,  that  we  are  concerned.  Here 
is  the  great  obligation  which  the  blossom  of  the 
year  exemplifies  and  proclaims  :  to  hand  down 
unimpaired  to  our  successors  what  we  have  so  richly 
received.  The  care  with  which  nature  fulfils  this 
law  is  deeply  suggestive  of  the  scrupulous  fidelity  with 
which  we  should  guard  in  their  passage  the  inherited 
treasures  which  we  seek  to  transmit.  So  finely  sealed 
are  the  precious  potencies  of  life  within  the  seed, 
and  in  many  cases,  so  fortified  against  consumption 
by  forbidding  barriers  in  the  way  of  bitter  flavours,  that 
their  chances  of  survival  are  raised  to  the  maximum. 
Though  some  seeds  may  lie  undeveloped  in  the  soil 


206 


REPRODUCTION;  OR 


for  decades,  they  will  not  deteriorate.  Other  growths 
may  dispossess  and  replace  their  sires  for  half 
a  century,  but  they  will  bide  their  time.  The 
fires  that  destroy  their  usurpers  will  but  liberate 
their  pent-up  forces,  so  that  they  may  wave  in  green 
and  golden  triumph  above  the  ashes  of  their  foes.  Now, 
what  the  trees  thus  do  under  the  necessity  of  great 
biological  laws,  we  are  called  upon  to  do  by  choice.  We 
are  trustees  on  behalf  of  the  future.  To  claim  heirship 
while  we  default  in  stewardship  is  to  invalidate  our  claim, 
and  prove  ourselves  unworthy  successors  to  the  estates 
we  are  called  upon  to  administer.  The  past,  instead  of 
placing  us  in  moral  credit,  casts  us  in  moral  debit.  Instead 
of  heightening  claims,  it  deepens  obligations.  We  have 
come  into  a  great  inheritance  in  the  Christian  Church.  She 
has  come  down  to  us  baptized  with  the  blood  of  her 
martyred  sons.  There  are  no  pages  of  our  history  over 
which  we  bend  with  so  profound  and  reverent  a  joy,  as 
those  which  tell  of  heroic  men  and  brave-hearted  women 
who,  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  the  gospel,  have  in  every 
age  dared  the  scaffold  and  the  stake,  or  on  mission 
fields  have  poured  out  their  souls  unto  death.  The  whole 
history  of  the  Church  goes  to  show  that  the  force  and 
flow,  the  warmth  and  glow  of  a  progressive  Christianity, 
have  always  been  in  proportion  to  the  sacrificial  spirit  she 
has  displayed. 

This  element  is  the  truest  index  of  her  multiplying 
power,  and  it  is  only  as  it  becomes  the  dominant  principle 
of  her  life,  commanding  all  her  forces,  at  all  times  and 
to  all  issues,  that  the  beat  of  her  pulse  can  be  strong  or 
the  tide  of  her  life  run  high.  But  no  Church  can  be 


THE  MISSIONARY  IMPERATIVE 


207 


missionary  that  is  not  sacrificial.  Through  sacrifice 
alone  can  she  vindicate  her  right  to  be  called  by  the  name 
of  Christ.  She  is  the  product  of  the  sublimest  act  of 
sacrifice  that  the  world  has  ever  seen, — a  sacrifice  so 
utter  and  absolute  in  its  self-surrender  as  to  overpower 
the  thought,  paralyse  the  imagination,  and  smite  the 
ages  with  speechless  awe.  Now  the  Church  that  is  the 
fruit  of  so  stupendous  a  sacrifice  must,  in  order  to  be 
true  to  the  great  law  of  inheritance,  become  sacrificial 
too.  Read  in  the  fight  of  this  supreme  moral  impera¬ 
tive,  the  martyr’s  death  is  at  once  redeemed  from  its 
apparent  wantonness  and  waste.  It  is  seen  not  as  a 
separate  and  unconnected  incident,  with  no  relation  to 
either  past  or  future,  not  as  an  accident  that  might  have 
been  foreseen  and  perhaps  prevented.  It  is  rather  a 
necessary  part  of  a  divine  plan,  and  makes  its  contribu¬ 
tion  to  that  great  redeeming  purpose  which  runs  through 
all  time  and  through  all  worlds  to  issue  in  the  home¬ 
bringing  of  all  God’s  wandering  children  to  the  warmth 
and  welcome  of  the  House  not  made  with  hands. 

Other  men  sacrificed  and  we  are  enjoying  the  fruits. 
But  we  cannot  accept  the  privilege  without  accepting 
the  obligation  with  which  it  is  counterpoised.  From 
this  obligation  there  can  be  no  honourable  discharge. 
At  whatever  cost  of  personal  comfort  the  Church  is 
bound  to  seek  that  she  may  save.  We  may  not  be  called 
to  die  for  our  faith,  but  we  are  called  to  five  for  it,  and 
this  will  often  call  for  a  greater,  because  more  sustained, 
heroism  than  that  which  is  required  to  lead  a  forlorn 
hope  or  win  the  Victoria  Cross — the  homely  heroism  of 
common  fife  that  will  enable  us  to  do  justly  and  love 


208 


REPRODUCTION;  OR 


mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  our  God.  There  are 
strange  forces  at  work  in  the  social  life  of  our  time,  forces 
highly  organized  and  gathering  in  power  and  intelligence. 
But  unless  these  newly-awakened  forces,  in  the  persons 
of  those  who  wield  them,  are  brought  to  the  Cross  of 
Calvary  and  are  there  baptized  into  the  spirit  of  self- 
sacrificing  love,  they  will  work  disaster  and  doom  to  the 
empire  that  we  hold  so  dear.  Under  the  shadow  of  the 
great  war’s  woe,  which  still  darkens  so  many  thousands 
of  our  homes,  how  can  we  hesitate  ?  Every  drop  of 
British  blood  that  stains  the  battle-fields  of  Europe  and 
the  East  is  calling  to  its  kindred  blood  to  render  certain 
that  its  shedding  shall  not  be  in  vain. 

There  is  no  call  like  that  of  sacrificial  blood  poured  out 
in  a  great  cause,  and  at  its  challenge  there  is  only  one 
thing  for  honourable  men  to  do,  unless  they  are  to  remain 
under  the  lash  of  perpetual  self-rebuke,  and  that  is  to 
drink  of  the  same  sacrificial  cup,  and,  either  by  actual 
personal  service,  or,  if  that  be  impracticable,  by  such 
other  contribution  as  the  spirit  of  a  self-renouncing 
chivalry  shall  dictate,  helping  to  carry  to  a  finish  the 
work  that  has  been  so  heroically  commenced.  A  man 
must  indeed  be  pretty  low  down  in  the  scale  of  moral 
being  to  whom  a  great  act  of  self-sacrifice  does  not 
appeal.  The  homage  of  humanity  in  the  presence  of 
such  self-surrender  is  instinctive,  universal,  unequivocal. 
In  such  a  case  cold  reason  is  simply  ruled  out.  Her 
calculations  as  to  cost,  her  suggestions  of  waste,  are 
resented  as  an  impertinence.  She  has  no  status  in  this 
court.  She  is  not  qualified  to  plead.  The  facts  are  of  a 
kind  that  she  is  incompetent  to  handle.  She  possesses 


THE  MISSIONARY  IMPERATIVE 


209 


no  scales  sufficiently  delicate  to  assess  such  exquisitely 
subtle  values. 

In  dealing  with  these  questions  we  are  moving  in 
another  realm  from  that  of  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence, 
a  realm  whose  quantities  have  no  financial  equivalent, 
where  ease  and  comfort,  fame  and  fortune,  home  and 
friends,  wife  and  child,  and  even  life  itself,  must  be 
renounced  at  duty’s  call.  It  is  a  realm  where  the  every¬ 
day  maxim,  ‘  Each  for  himself,’  is  reversed,  and  ‘  Each 
for  the  other,  and  all  for  the  common  weal  ’  is  the  infallible 
criterion  of  worth.  Here  are  principles  and  values  that 
run  in  the  teeth  of  all  political  economy,  and  laugh  to 
scorn  the  laws  of  supply  and  demand.  But,  though  they 
thus  array  against  themselves  all  the  worldly  wisdom  of 
the  market-place  and  the  exchange,  they  continue  to 
persist  and  prevail.  They  are  imponderable,  and  yet, 
strangest  of  all  paradoxes,  when  weighed  against  material 
things  they  cause  thrones  and  dominions,  armies  and 
navies,  gold  and  silver,  wheat  and  wool,  and  all  the 
wealth  of  the  world,  to  kick  the  beam.  The  life  that  is 
lavish  in  sacrifice  thus  becomes  rich  beyond  all  the  dreams 
of  avarice,  and  noble  beyond  the  rank  of  kings. 

Hence,  to  measure  up  the  moral  value  of  any  professedly 
noble  act,  you  must  ascertain  how  much  of  self-sacrifice 
it  involved.  This  is  the  infallible  test — the  unchanging 
and  unchangeable  standard  of  valuation  in  the  moral 
world — and  that,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  is  the  only 
world  that  matters.  How  true  this  is  becomes  speedily 
apparent  from  the  fact  that  in  the  presence  of  any  great 
act  of  self-sacrifice  Mammon  stands  abashed,  lawless 
ambition  is  rebuked,  pride  begins  with  shame  to  take  a 
14 


210 


REPRODUCTION 


lower  place,  covetousness  averts  her  gaze  from  the  object 
of  illicit  desire,  and  even  sensuality  seeks  to  hide  her 
burning  face.  Indeed,  not  only  do  the  vices  cower  before 
the  silent  majesty  of  sacrifice,  but  even  the  prudential  and 
self-complacent  virtues  show  up  pale  and  bloodless  beside 
the  crimson  splendour  of  her  altar-fires,  even  as  the 
morning  stars  grow  dim, — 

When  on  the  glimmering  limit  far  withdrawn, 

God  makes  Himself  an  awful  rose  of  dawn. 

The  law  of  sacrifice  runs  like  a  scarlet  thread  through  all 
the  grades  of  life,  and  glorifies  them  all.  It  is  the  ‘  All- 
red  route  ’  along  which  the  lowest  may  pass  to  the  highest, 
and  the  last  become  first.  The  strength  of  the  earth  is 
sacrificed  to  the  grass  of  the  field,  the  strength  of  the 
grass  to  the  sheep  and  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,  and 
the  sheep  and  the  cattle  are  sacrificed  to  man  and  his 
needs ;  and  it  is  only  as  man  in  his  turn  pours  out  his 
strength,  a  living  sacrifice  on  the  holy  altar  of  God  in  the 
service  of  humanity,  that  he  can  reach  his  highest  or 
achieve  his  best.  This  law  has  thus,  as  we  have  seen, 
a  biological  and  economic  value  and  significance  long 
before  it  enters  the  moral  world  at  all.  Here,  however, 
it  reaches  its  culmination,  finding  its  highest  and  most 
sublime  expression  in  the  Cross  of  the  world’s  Christ, 
and  it  is  only  as  its  spirit  passes  into  ours,  only  as  we  are 
prepared  even  at  the  cost  of  sacrifice  to  hand  on  the  torch, 
that  we  can  vindicate  our  right  to  have  and  to  hold  the 
possessions  we  enjoy. 


VI 


EPILOGUE 

It  only  remains  to  show  the  ground  on  which  the  great 
apostle  bases  his  appeal  for  the  realization  of  this  cor¬ 
porate  ideal,  viz.  ‘  The  mercies  of  God/  Now  the  mercies 
of  God  come  to  expression  as  nowhere  else  in  the  Cross 
of  the  world’s  Christ,  and  throughout  his  whole  teaching 
the  Apostle  Paul  sets  the  Cross  against  the  dark  back¬ 
ground  of  the  world’s  sin.  There  are  many  aspects  under 
which  sin  is  set  before  us  in  the  Scriptures,  but  there  is 
one  factor  that  is  common  to  them  all,  and  that  is 
‘  divergence.’ 

Now  this  idea  of  sin  as  a  divergent,  divisive,  disruptive 
force,  breaking  up  the  unity  of  life  and  putting  asunder 
what  God  had  joined  together,  seems  everywhere  to 
underlie  the  Scripture  teaching  with  regard  to  redemption. 
Christ  is  set  forth  as  the  great  unifying  medium  through 
whom  are  being  gathered  into  one  all  the  scattered  wills 
and  truant  affections  of  this  and  of  every  other  world. 
This  is  the  essential  idea  of  our  word  ‘  atonement.’  It  is 
made  up  of  the  two  English  words  ‘  at  ’  and  ‘  one,’  so 
that  to  ‘  atone  ’  means  to  *  set  at  one.’  ‘  This,’  says 
Skeat,  '  was  a  clumsy  expedient,  so  much  so  as  to  make 
the  etymology  look  doubtful,  but  it  can  be  clearly  traced, 
and  there  need  be  no  hesitation  about  it.’  Now  Christ 


2IX 


212 


EPILOGUE 


claims  that  this  power  of  cosmic  unification  is  exerted 
through  the  attraction  of  His  Cross.  *  I,  if  I  be  lifted 
up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me.’  There 
are  certain  great  implications  here  that  it  will  be  well  to 
render  explicit  before  dealing  with  the  main  issue.  The 
first  is  the  fact  of  universal  human  divergence  from  the 
ideal,  which  divergence  Christ  set  Himself  to  correct, 
and  the  consciousness  of  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
speak  of  as  ‘  a  sense  of  sin/  There  is  a  remarkable  phrase 
in  Eph.  i.  io  in  which  this  unifying  idea  that  is  folded 
up  in  the  term  '  holiness  ’  finds  expression.  The  passage 
runs  thus  :  ‘  In  whom  we  have  redemption  through  His 
blood,  the  forgiveness  of  sins  according  to  the  riches  of 
His  grace,  that  in  the  dispensation  of  the  fullness  of  times 
He  might  gather  together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ, 
both  which  are  in  heaven  and  which  are  on  earth,  even 
in  Him/  Dr.  Way’s  translation  is  finer — ‘  to  ^-unite.’ 
Christ’s  teaching  seems  to  be  this,  that  through  the 
historic  act  and  fact  of  His  crucifixion  a  new  and  centri¬ 
petal  force  is  let  loose  upon  the  world  which  will  every¬ 
where  make  for  the  reversal  of  that  centrifugal  force  by 
which  men  fly  off  from  their  God-appointed  orbits  and 
seek  orbits  of  their  own.  In  the  Ptolemaic  theory  of  the 
universe  this  earth  was  regarded  as  the  centre  of  the 
solar  system,  around  which  the  sun  and  all  the  planets 
were  seen  to  revolve.  The  Copernican  system,  which 
displaced  this  and  which  now  holds  the  field,  regards  the 
sun  as  the  centre  around  which  the  earth  and  all  her  sister 
planets  revolve.  Now  the  adoption  of  the  Copernican 
theory,  while  it  made  a  revolution  in  man’s  thinking, 
was  attended  by  no  corresponding  cataclysm  among  the 


EPILOGUE 


213 


heavenly  bodies  themselves.  Unhasting,  unresting,  and 
heedless  of  all  human  theories,  they  keep  up  their  majestic 
march  towards  the  goal  of  the  divine  desire.  But  the 
change  from  a  geo-centric  or  earth-centred  to  a  theo- 
centric  or  God-centred  theory  in  the  moral  world  does 
effect,  not  only  a  revolution  in  man’s  thinking,  but 
through  his  thinking  in  all  his  conduct.  It  has,  as  Richter 
finely  says,  ‘  Lifted  centuries  off  their  hinges,  turned  the 
stream  of  history  into  new  channels,  and  still  governs 
the  ages.’  Every  force,  to  be  effective,  must  bear  relation 
to  the  class  of  work  that  requires  to  be  done.  Now, 
inasmuch  as  the  work  which  Christ  sought  to  effect  was 
moral,  every  idea  of  force  in  a  physical  sense  had  to  be 
counted  out,  because  for  God  to  compel  man  even  for 
man’s  good,  for  Him  to  override  and  carry  His  purpose, 
so  to  speak,  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  would  be  for  Him 
to  gain  a  merely  physical  victory  at  the  disastrous  cost 
of  a  moral  defeat.  Now  it  is  in  the  adjustment  of  moral 
means  to  the  realization  of  His  great  cosmic  and  redeeming 
ends  that  Christ  crucified  becomes  both  the  power  of  God 
and  the  wisdom  of  God.  Nowhere  is  wisdom  more  required 
than  in  the  use  of  power,  and  nowhere  is  the  wise  use  of 
power  more  in  demand  than  in  the  treatment  of  moral 
beings.  Every  one  knows  how,  in  the  administration  of 
the  home  and  in  seeking  to  restore  ruptured  family 
relations,  great  wisdom  and  discretion  are  required.  The 
task  of  adjustment  calls  for  the  utmost  delicacy,  the 
most  consummate  tact,  that  love  can  suggest  or  ingenuity 
contrive.  There  is  in  every  such  case  a  twofold  end  to 
be  gained.  Not  only  must  the  breach  be  healed  and  the 
unity  of  the  home  restored,  but  the  parental  authority 


214 


EPILOGUE 


must  be  upheld  and  preserved  or  there  can  be  no  lasting 
peace.  Thus,  then,  thinking  of  God,  as  we  are  instructed 
to  do,  in  terms  of  Fatherhood,  and  regarding  the  whole 
race  of  men  as  His  children  who  have  broken  loose  from 
home  and  its  restraints,  the  task  of  restoration  will  at 
once  present  problems  calling  for  the  most  exquisite 
blending  of  affection  and  wisdom,  so  that  the  assurance 
of  pardon  and  welcome  wrought  in  the  heart  of  the  sinner 
shall  be  attended  with  a  due  feeling  as  to  the  awfulness 
of  his  sin.  Now  the  Cross  of  Christ  performs  this  twofold 
act,  achieves  this  double  purpose,  meets  this  dual  need. 
The  second  implication  is  the  universal  moral  responsive¬ 
ness  of  the  human  heart  to  the  pull  of  Christ’s  attractive 
power.  The  magnetic  field,  swept  by  the  forces  of 
redemption,  is  shown  to  be  co-extensive  with  all  time 
and  with  all  worlds.  ‘  For  it  pleased  the  Father  that  in 
Him  all  fullness  should  dwell,  and,  having  made  peace 
through  the  blood  of  His  Cross,  by  Him  to  reconcile  all 
things  unto  Himself.  By  Him,  I  say,  whether  they  be 
things  in  earth  or  things  in  heaven.’  No  one  lies  outside 
its  reach  or  range.  In  some  mysterious  way  Christ 
acquired  through  His  Cross  a  vantage-ground  from  which 
to  reach  the  farthest  away  and  bring  him  near.  His 
uplifting  means  the  uplifting  of  the  race  in  Him.  It 
liberated  a  force  which  until  then  was  pent  up,  or  but 
partially  operative,  because  untranslated,  just  as  the 
force  of  a  great  thought  may  lie  dormant  through  being 
imprisoned  in  an  unknown  tongue.  This  was  the  case 
with  all  the  power  and  grace  of  Greek  thought  during  the 
Middle  Ages.  It  was  a  frozen  fountain  till,  under  the 
warmth  of  the  Renaissance,  it  was  set  free  to  cut  its 


EPILOGUE 


215 


fertilizing  way  through  Italy,  France,  Germany,  and 
England,  making  them  burgeon  into  newness  of  life. 
Indeed,  this  analogy  between  words  with  their  sealed- 
up  forces  which  have  to  be  liberated  to  become  effective, 
and  the  Strong  Son  of  God  with  all  the  redeeming  energies 
which  His  heart  of  love  enfolds,  and  which  had  to  pour 
themselves  forth  and  find  expression  in  His  Cross,  runs 
deeper  than  at  first  appears.  Christ  is  called  the  *  Divine 
Word/  but  a  word  is  the  expression  of  a  thought,  a  feeling, 
a  purpose  ;  and  all  God's  redeeming  thoughts  and  feelings 
and  purposes,  which  struggled  for  expression  through 
history,  prophecy,  and  psalm  for  centuries,  realized 
themselves  in  the  ‘  Word  made  flesh/  But  they  flashed 
into  form  only  that  through  form  they  might  flash  back 
into  spirit.  It  is  only  as  the  Incarnation  is  thus  spiritually 
resolved  back  into  its  essential  elements,  only  as  it  is 
spiritually  interpreted  and  discerned,  that  it  completes 
its  circuit  and  achieves  its  end.  Just  as  a  word,  which  is 
the  incarnation  of  a  thought,  must  be  made  to  deliver 
up  its  inner  meaning  so  that  the  receiving  mind  may  be 
able  to  comprehend  the  transmitting  mind,  so  the  incarna¬ 
tion  of  Christ — the  Divine  Word — must  be  so  received 
into  the  soul  of  man  as  to  be  made  to  unseal  and  deliver 
up  its  inner  and  spiritual  significance.  That  this  might 
be  rendered  possible  it  behoved  Christ  to  suffer.  Only 
through  suffering  and  death  could  all  the  implicit  qualities 
with  which  His  heart  was  charged  be  made  explicit  and 
available  as  a  morally  regenerative  force.  It  is  not  the 
word,  but  the  thought  that  it  encloses,  that  matters,  just 
as  it  is  not  the  envelope,  but  the  letter  it  enfolds,  that 
counts.  The  former  must  perish  that  the  latter  may  be 


2l6 


EPILOGUE 


appropriated.  The  Incarnation  was  merely  a  human 
envelope  enclosing  the  divine  message  of  grace  and 
truth.  Through  the  Crucifixion  that  envelope  was  rent 
in  order  that  its  divinely  enfolded  life  might  pour  itself 
into  history  and  mingle  freely  with  the  life  of  the  world. 
Just  as  the  Latin  inscription  on  the  Cross,  through 
translation  into  its  Hebrew  and  Greek  equivalent,  let 
loose  the  truth  about  Jesus  of  Nazareth  so  that  all  might 
read  and  understand,  so  the  love  of  God,  through  transla¬ 
tion  into  terms  of  sacrifice,  found  a  mode  of  expression 
which  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  could  compre¬ 
hend.  Paul  speaks  about  the  '  Word  of  the  Cross/  and 
according  to  him  it  spelt  something  other  than  it  appeared. 
Humanly  speaking,  it  spelt  ‘  weakness  * ;  divinely  speak¬ 
ing,  it  spelt  ‘  power.'  Now,  as  there  is  yet  no  universal 
language,  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  very  instrument  that 
serves  as  a  highway  of  thought  between  men  who  speak 
the  same  tongue  becomes  a  positive  barrier  where  they 
do  not.  Indeed,  there  is  no  such  effective  barrier  between 
men  as  a  foreign  tongue.  But  there  is  a  language  that 
transcends  all  uttered  speech,  that  overleaps  all  boun¬ 
daries  of  nationality,  and  is  understood  alike  by  all 
people,  learned  and  illiterate,  degraded  and  refined. 
That  is  the  language  of  pity,  of  sympathy,  of  brotherly 
love,  a  language  that  discards  the  clumsy  medium  of 
mere  words  and  embodies  itself  in  tender  offices  and 
kindly  deeds.  The  writer  did  not  understand  a  word  of 
Syriac,  and  the  dozen  or  more  lepers  that  he  met  outside 
the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  could  not  understand  a  word 
of  English,  but  they  understood  when  he  sent  over  his 
dragoman  to  minister  to  their  needs,  that  he  felt  for  the 


EPILOGUE 


217 


misery  he  longed  to  relieve.  Moreover,  their  gratitude 
was  expressed  in  terms  that  needed  no  interpreter  to 
translate,  terms  that  proved  at  once  the  poverty  and 
superfluity  of  words.  When  a  kind  thought  or  a  loving 
impulse  translates  itself  into  an  act  of  pitying  tenderness 
it  finds  a  universal  language  of  appeal,  a  language  dumb 
but  irresistibly  eloquent,  mute  but  majestic  in  its  power 
to  attract,  to  persuade,  to  subdue.  Such  a  language  is 
next  to  impossible  of  misinterpretation,  and  this  is  the 
language  of  the  Cross.  If  the  everywhere  present  force 
of  gravitation  could  be  photographed  it  would  probably 
be  found  to  present  the  appearance  of  myriads  of  hair¬ 
like  lines  of  force  crossing  one  another  at  innumerable 
angles,  lines  along  which  the  attractive  energy  would  be 
seen  streaming  to  and  from  every  particle  in  nature  and 
thus  binding  the  universe  into  an  organized  whole.  Now 
what  gravitation  is  in  the  world  of  matter  the  Divine 
Love  may  be  held  to  be  in  the  world  of  mind.  It  is  that 
out-streaming  force  from  the  heart  of  the  Infinite  which 
flows  forth  to  the  heart  of  every  finite,  drawing  it  with 
ineffable  tenderness  up  and  out  and  away  from  the  sin 
which  means  division  and  discord,  into  the  serene  heights 
of  that  holiness  which  means  unification,  where  all  the 
clash  of  divided  interests  is  hushed — or  rather  harmonized 
— in  that  over-mastering  love  which  is  the  fulfilment  of 
the  law.  Humanly  speaking,  of  course  ;  for  Paul,  in 
preaching  to  the  Greeks,  to  base  his  missionary  hopes  on 
what  he  calls  the  ‘  Word  of  the  Cross/  was  hopelessly  to 
prejudice  his  case  from  the  outset.  It  was  to  court 
disaster  and  foredoom  his  mission  to  defeat.  He  knew 
the  inwardness  of  the  Greek  mind,  and  was  sympathetic 
15 


218 


EPILOGUE 


with  it.  He  had  been  bom  and  educated  in  a  Greek  city. 
He  understood  the  Greek  prejudice  against  everything 
that  savoured  of  suffering  and  physical  disability.  The 
Greek  could  not  associate  divinity  with  physical  weakness 
or  bodily  suffering.  Knowing  all  this,  the  disposition 
must  have  been  strong  to  discourse  on  the  lofty  ethic  of 
Christ’s  teaching  and  the  moral  beauty  of  His  life.  One 
might  have  thought  that  in  his  desire  to  conciliate  them 
he  would  have  thmst  these  into  the  forefront  of  his 
message,  and  that  a  veil  would  have  been  thrown  around 
the  tragedy  of  the  Cross.  If,  however,  this  was  Paul’s 
temptation,  it  was  manfully  resisted  and  grandly  over¬ 
come  ;  for  both  at  Athens  and  Corinth,  in  spite  of  Stoic 
and  cynic,  sophist  and  sceptist,  he  preached  a  crucified 
Saviour  as  the  only  ground  of  hope  for  Greek  as  well  as 
barbarian,  knowing  as  he  did  so  that  in  the  Cross  there 
was  gathered  up  a  power  mightier  than  that  which  had 
guided  the  Caesars  to  universal  empire,  and  a  wisdom 
richer  and  deeper  than  the  philosophy  of  Greece  had  ever 
dreamed.  According  to  Paul,  the  Crucifixion  is  a  challenge 
to  the  world’s  thought  as  well  as  to  its  feeling.  Back  of  it 
all,  and  constituting  the  ground  of  its  necessity,  Paul 
assumes  the  awful  fact  of  human  sin.  The  Cross,  in  his 
estimate,  is  the  divinely  selected  method  of  effecting  the  re¬ 
covery,  the  reinstatement,  and  the  moral  reinforcement  of 
the  race.  According  to  his  teaching,  it  must  not  be  regarded 
as  a  divine  afterthought  introduced  to  meet  a  contingency 
that  unexpectedly  arose.  This  is  totally  to  misconceive 
the  place  and  work  of  Christ  in  the  cosmic  system. 

That  system  included  the  Cross  not  merely  as  a 
pre-determined  fact,  but  as  a  pre-determining  factor,  in 


EPILOGUE 


219 


view  of  which  the  entire  creative  process  was  conceived, 
conducted,  and  controlled.  As  a  forethought  of  the  divine 
mind  it  shaped  the  whole  method  of  divine  procedure. 
Until  the  Cross  was  ideally  set  up  the  scheme  of  creation, 
involving  man  as  its  culminating  point,  could  not  be 
justifiably  launched.  The  ethics  of  the  case  demanded 
that  no  creative  scheme  should  be  projected  that  did  not 
safeguard  the  moral  interests  of  every  sentient  creature 
within  the  sweep  of  its  orbit.  By  constituting  man  a 
moral  agent  God  created  the  possibility  of  disloyalty, 
with  all  the  disabilities  which  such  a  lapse  would  neces¬ 
sarily  involve.  By  so  doing  He  was  morally  bound  to 
include  as  an  intrinsic  part  of  His  scheme  an  adequate 
provision  for  meeting  and  correcting  any  and  every 
deviation  which  man  in  the  abuse  of  his  moral  freedom 
might  pursue.  Any  other  view  would  require  us  to 
suppose  that  He  launched  a  vast  creative  scheme  carry¬ 
ing  risks  which  either  He  had  not  foreseen,  or,  having 
foreseen,  had  made  no  provision  to  meet,  so  that  either 
His  omniscience  must  be  found  wanting  or  His  infinite 
goodness  impugned.  We  are  forced  both  by  the  intellectual 
and  ethical  necessities  of  the  case  to  assume,  first,  that 
all  the  contingencies  which  the  creation  of  a  race  of 
morally  free  intelligences  involved  were  present  to  the 
divine  mind  while  that  creation  was  as  yet  only  ideally 
existent,  and  before  a  single  step  had  been  taken  in  the 
great  evolutionary  process  which  climbs  to  its  culmination 
in  man.  And,  secondly,  we  must  assume  that  ample 
provision  was  secured  to  meet  all  the  necessities  which, 
through  the  occurrence  of  any  or  all  of  these  contingencies, 
might  arise.  The  Cross  of  Christ  thus  conceived 


220 


EPILOGUE 


becomes  the  centre  of  creation  as  well  as  of  redemption. 
Its  appearance  on  Calvary  was  but  the  historical  com¬ 
pletion  of  a  transaction  the  beginning  of  which  has  to  be 
dated  back  ‘  before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth 
or  ever  the  earth  and  the  world  were  made.’ 

According  to  Paul,  as  Christ  was  the  active  agent  of 
creation  He  had  of  necessity  to  become  the  active  agent 
of  redemption.  This  is  the  clear  teaching  from  Col.  i.  : 
‘  In  whom  we  have  our  redemption,  the  forgiveness  of 
our  sins  :  who  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the 
first-bom  of  all  creation  ;  for  in  Him  were  all  things 
created,  in  the  heavens  and  upon  the  earth,  things 
visible  and  things  invisible,  whether  thrones  or  dominions, 
or  principalities  or  powers  ;  all  things  have  been  created 
through  Him,  and  unto  Him  ;  and  He  is  before  all  things 
and  in  Him  all  things  consist  (margin,  hold  together).' 
Now  what  can  this  mean  but  that,  seeing  He  is  responsible 
for  the  creation,  He  thereby  becomes  responsible  for  all 
the  moral  peril  to  which  by  its  freedom  it  is  exposed? 
He  could  not  launch  such  a  system  on  the  ocean  of  being, 
with  power  in  itself  to  become  deranged,  and  then,  when 
that  derangement  had  set  in,  leave  it  derelict  to  drift  to 
its  doom.  It  can  only  ‘  hold  together,'  as  Paul  shows,  in 
Him,  and  for  any  disintegration  which  may  result  through 
its  own  perversity  it  has  a  perfect  right  to  look  to  Him 
for  correction  and  redress.  In  providing  for  our  justifica¬ 
tion  God  thus  makes  provision  for  His  own,  and  in  the 
only  possible  way,  by  shouldering  the  Lability  which  His 
creative  act  has  incurred.  If,  as  Paul  affirms,  God  is  the 
Father  in  whom  every  family  in  heaven  and  earth  is 
named,  then  the  sin  of  the  world  is  a  family  trouble  and 


EPILOGUE 


221 


touches  the  family  honour.  In  the  blame  and  shame  of 
it,  the  Almighty  Father,  by  reason  of  his  Fatherhood,  is 
bound  to  share.  He  is  so  mixed  in  with  it  that  the 
clearing  up  of  it  is  as  much  His  concern  as  ours. 

The  Cross  thus  becomes  a  manifestation  of  divine 
righteousness  and  not  merely  of  divine  love,  for,  to  quote 
again  the  great  apostle,  in  writing  to  the  Romans,  ‘  All 
have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God,  being 
justified  freely  by  His  grace  through  the  redemption  that 
is  in  Christ  Jesus,  whom  God  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation 
through  faith,  by  His  blood  to  show  His  righteousness’ 
(not  merely  His  love,  mark,  but  His  righteousness),  and  he 
repeats  it,  that  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding  of  his 
meaning,  ‘  to  declare,  I  say,  His  righteousness,  that  He 
might  be  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  belie veth  in 
Jesus.’  The  conclusion  is  inevitable  that  God’s  own 
justification  necessitated  His  own  suffering  in  the  person 
of  His  Son,  and  by  the  assumption  of  the  great  world’s 
sin.  '  He  was  made  sin  for  us  who  knew  no  sin,  that  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him,’  or,  as 
Dr.  Way  renders  it,  ‘  Jesus  knew  no  sin,  yet  God  made 
Him  to  be  the  world’s  sin  for  our  sakes,  that  we  whose  sin 
He  had  thus  assumed  might  become  by  our  union  with 
Him  God’s  righteousness.’  God  had  to  be  right  with 
Himself,  and  He  may  be  regarded  as  declaring  by  the 
Cross  the  truth  revealed  through  Ezek.  xxxvi.  22  : 
‘  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  ;  I  do  not  this  for  your  sakes, 
O  house  of  Israel,  but  for  My  holy  name’s  sake.’  And 
so  it  was  that  when  the  sin  that  His  creative  act  rendered 
possible  had  become  actual,  it  completed  the  circuit  and 
reacted  upon  Him,  hence  ‘  it  behoved  Christ  to 


222 


EPILOGUE 


suffer,  and  to  rise  again  from  the  dead  the  third 
day/ 

Now  the  perfection  of  wisdom  has  been  defined  as  the 
adaptation  of  the  best  means  to  the  best  ends,  and  herein 
is  wisdom  made  perfect  in  that  the  Almighty,  before  any 
created  being  had  as  yet  sprung  into  existence  at  the 
breath  of  His  mouth,  anticipated  all  that  would  occur, 
and  wrought  into  the  very  heart  of  His  creative  purpose 
and  process  an  economy  of  grace  and  restoration  before 
there  was  a  soul  to  be  tempted  or  a  law  to  be  disobeyed. 
Of  that  economy  the  Cross  is  the  full  and  final  expression. 
It  is  the  glowing  centre,  where  all  the  moral  attributes 
of  God  meet  and  find  their  focal  point,  thence  to  radiate  in 
streams  of  beneficent  recovery  and  reinstating  grace. 
It  is  a  force  wisely  adjusted  to  the  class  of  work  that 
requires  to  be  wrought.  It  has  to  respect  the  free  agency 
of  the  creature,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  come  clothed 
with  all  those  majestic  sanctions  which  belong  to  the 
Creator.  It  is  in  the  fine  balance  of  these  forces,  in  the 
wondrous  delicacy  of  their  adjustment  and  application, 
in  the  skilful  administration  of  divine  grace  so  as  not  to 
diminish  but  enhance  the  true  and  proper  dignity  of  the 
recipient,  that  the  wisdom  of  God  is  made  manifest,  so  that 
the  soul  through  His  abounding  grace  may  regain  not  only 
the  forfeited  favour,  but  the  long-lost  image  of  the  divine. 

The  human  soul,  however  depraved,  instinctively 
demands  that  any  salvation  offered  to  it  shall  be  on  terms 
that  will  not  do  violence  to  its  own  sense  of  honour  to 
accept.  Before  the  gift  of  pardon  can  be  received  it 
must  be  satisfied  that  every  just  claim  has  been  met,  and 
that  its  release  has  been  honourably  obtained.  This  is 


EPILOGUE 


223 


not  a  false  pride  requiring  to  be  broken  down.  It  is  a 
divinely  implanted  and  proper  sense  of  justice,  to  be 
profoundly  respected  and  jealously  preserved.  Any 
so-called  salvation  that  involved  self-stultification,  or 
that  required  a  man  to  become  any  the  less  a  man  through 
accepting  it,  would  thereby  belie  its  name.  The  soul 
does  not  seek  to  evade  the  penalty  of  its  wrong-doing. 
It  rather  seeks  to  endure  it.  It  even  hastens  to  meet  it, 
feeling  in  its  best  moments  that  there  could  be  nothing 
in  the  universe  so  dreadful  as  impunity.  For  the  normal 
soul  to  have  an  unsatisfied  judgement  recorded  against  it 
is  a  perpetual  distress,  and  there  sets  in  sooner  or  later 
a  longing  to  foot  the  bill  and  to  get  square  with  the 
nature  of  things,  which  is  God.  No  atonement  provided 
by  a  pure  and  holy  being  could  afford  to  ignore  this 
instinct,  and  as  I  conceive  and  construe  the  Cross,  its 
purpose  is  rather  to  deepen  than  dissipate  the  sense  of  its 
requirements.  The  Cross  is  not  a  clever  device  by  which 
we  are  enabled  to  escape  from  our  obligations.  It  is  the 
divinely-appointed  dynamic  whereby  we  are  energized 
for  their  full  and  fair  discharge.  The  grace  of  God 
through  the  atoning  work  of  Christ  makes  an  advance  to 
the  insolvent  soul  in  the  way  of  moral  assets  with  which 
to  cancel  its  moral  disabilities.  A  man  is  thus  made 
morally  solvent  on  trust.  Because  of  his  faith  he  is 
reckoned  to  be  in  funds.  He  is  rendered  financial  as  to 
righteousness.  He  is  placed  in  moral  credit,  and  as  a 
pure  matter  of  grace,  in  order  that,  working  on  this 
credit,  he  may  re-establish  his  moral  status  and  earn  a 
good  degree.  This  is  how  justification  by  faith  passes  into 
justification  by  works,  and  the  soul  vindicates  its  right 


224 


EPILOGUE 


to  have  and  to  hold  the  advance  it  has  received.  A  man 
may  not  work  for  his  salvation  ;  that  is  a  free  gift ;  it  is 
purely  of  grace.  But  when  he  has  got  it  he  must  work 
at  it  and  with  it,  so  to  speak,  as  his  moral  stock-in-trade. 

The  wisdom  of  thus  dividing  the  onus  of  salvation  so 
that  man  becomes,  not  only  a  consenting  party,  but  a 
working  partner  in  the  business,  preserves  the  sanctity 
and  self-respect  of  the  individual  will,  so  that  in  the 
acceptance  of  the  gift  the  recipient,  through  humbling 
himself,  finds  the  way  to  truest  exaltation.  The  twin 
forces  of  divine  wisdom  and  power  thus  meet  and  mingle 
in  the  Cross,  so  that  the  claims  of  the  human  mind  as 
well  as  of  the  human  heart  are  met  and  satisfied  by  this 
expression  of  the  mind  and  heart  of  God.  The  problem 
with  which  the  Almighty  was  faced  in  redemption  was 
not  so  much  to  provide  a  salvation  as  to  get  it  off  His 
hands  ;  not  so  much  to  bridge  the  chasm  man's  sin  had 
cut,  as  to  induce  man  to  cross  the  bridge.  The  initial 
movement  towards  reconciliation  has  always  been  from 
God's  side.  Let  it  be  dismissed  from  our  minds,  if  ever 
it  was  entertained,  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross  was  in 
any  way  a  purchase  price  of  the  Divine  Love.  God  does 
not  love  us  because  Christ  died  for  us  ;  but  Christ  died 
for  us  because  God  loved  us  ;  and  when  we  see  that  His 
love  was  so  great  that  it  was  prepared  to  suffer  in  its 
effort  to  redeem,  this  it  is  that  conquers  us.  We  cannot 
hold  out  against  such  love.  It  is  simply  irresistible. 
A  man  never  feels  so  mean  as  when  he  discovers  that  he 
has  wronged  a  personal  friend  or  pained  a  loving  and 
generous  heart ;  and  this  is  the  conviction  that  Christ 
crucified  works  in  us — that  by  our  sin  we  have  been 


EPILOGUE 


225 


wounding  a  tender  and  loving  spirit  and  giving  Him 
more  than  mortal  pain ;  that  He  whom  we  have  been 
working,  and  planning,  and  sinning  against  has  all  the 
time  been  caring  for  our  interests,  and  seeking  in  a  thousand 
ways  to  bless  and  enrich  our  lives.  Who  can  express 
the  remorse  that  must  set  in  upon  such  a  discovery  ? 
Is  there  anything  too  great  to  do  or  to  suffer  if  we  can 
only  wipe  out  the  memory  of  that  wrong  ?  Can  we 
conceive  of  a  mightier  moral  force  at  work  in  our  lives 
than  that  which  would  operate  in  such  a  case  ?  Well, 
this  is  the  power  of  the  Cross  !  It  works  in  us  such  a 
conviction  of  shame  and  unworthiness  that  we  have  no 
peace  until  we  range  ourselves  on  its  side  and  take  our 
stand  against  the  sin  that  made  it  a  necessity.  This 
alone  is  salvation — to  be  won  to  a  different  temper 
towards  sin  ;  to  come  to  hate  it  for  the  disruptive  and 
hatefully  contaminating  thing  that  it  is,  and  to  pour  out 
our  life  in  seeking  to  counteract  its  baleful  influence  in 
ourselves  and  in  the  world.  Herein,  then,  is  made 
manifest  not  only  the  love — as  Paul  declares — but  the 
power  and  the  wisdom  of  God. 

In  one  of  the  most  notable  of  His  post-Resurrection 
utterances  the  Risen  Christ  claimed  that  all  authority  had 
been  given  to  Him  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Now  the 
word  translated  ‘  authority  ’  in  this  passage  means  more 
thanmere  *  power.’  Powermay  exist  without  the  authority 
to  use  it,  and,  conversely,  authority  may  exist  without 
the  power  to  back  it.  But  in  Christ  these  both  cohere. 

Into  His  pierced  hands  run  up  all  the  reins  of  might 
and  right,  as  from  His  mediatorial  throne  He  wields  the 
almighty  dynamic  of  His  Resurrection  life.  He  calls  to 


226 


EPILOGUE 


all  the  ages,  4  lam  He  that  liveth  and  was  dead,  and  behold 
I  am  alive  for  evermore,  and  have  the  keys  of  death  and 
of  the  underworld/  According  to  the  Apostle  Paul,  'He 
is  declared' — 'horizoned,'  as  the  Greek  has  it,  defined, 
marked  out — *  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  according 
to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead.' 

Nothing  can  be  clearer  from  the  documents  than  that, 
in  the  apostle's  view,  Christ’s  supreme  authority  and 
purchase  on  humanity — His  moral  leverage  on  the  race — 
has  been  acquired  through  sacrifice.  In  a  passage  of 
tremendous  power  and  majesty  Paul  reminds  the  Philip- 
pians  that  Christ  voluntarily  laid  aside  what  pre-existent 
rights  He  held  as  man’s  Creator,  that  through  their 
surrender  He  might  take  to  Himself  a  more  excellent 
right  as  their  Redeemer.  He  loosened  His  grasp  on  the 
forces  of  physical  compulsion  that  He  might  close  it  on 
those  of  moral  persuasion  and  constraint.  He  relin¬ 
quished  the  iron  rod  of  His  omnipotence  in  order  to 
assume  the  golden  sceptre  of  self-sacrificing  love.  From 
being  the  almighty  Master  He  became  the  all-suffering 
servant,  becoming  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death 
of  the  Cross,  that  through  sacrificial  service  He  might 
acquire  a  mastery  infinitely  superior  in  its  nature, 
infinitely  greater  in  its  grasp,  infinitely  wider  in  its 
sweep,  infinitely  gentler  in  its  working,  than  anything 
He  had  renounced — a  mastery  destined  not  merely  to 
command  the  homage  of  universal  humanity,  but  to  bend 
to  its  authority  in  adoring  wonder  all  wills,  whether  they 
be  wills  in  heaven,  or  wills  on  earth,  or  wills  in  the  under¬ 
world,  till  every  knee  should  bow  and  every  tongue 
confess  that  He  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father. 


INDEX 


Acts  of  the  Apostles,  104,  133 
Aeschylus,  9 
Anabolism,  40-70 
Anderson,  Dr.,  80 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  57,  186 
Animal  mechanism,  15 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  51 
Assimilation,  40-70 
‘  Atonement,'  the  word,  21 1 

Baritz,  Moses,  166-8 
Belief  and  behaviour,  120 
Bergson,  41 

Biological  research,  7-19,  45 
Blood  of  Christ,  the,  65-6 
Blood-plasma,  54,  65 
‘  Body,’  the  word,  27 ;  Paul’s 
analogy,  29 
Brain,  the,  88,  143 
Britain,  leadership  of,  186 
Browning,  13,  76,  185 
Bushnell,  198 

Campbell,  H.,  40 
Cancer,  83 

‘  Cheerfulness,’  the  word,  192 
Child,  education  of  the,  136 
Chlorophyll,  46 
Christ’s  Body,  30,  67 
Christ  the  carpenter,  30 ;  His 
temptation,  118 
Christendom,  a  united,  33 
Christianity,  social,  88 
Citizenship,  Christian,  134 
Communism,  26 
Community,  growth  of  a,  ill 
Consolation,  190- 197 
Conversion,  133 
Copernican  system,  212 
Corinthians,  Epistle  to,  122 
Cross,  the,  211-226 

Dante,  193 
Development,  82-92 
Differentiation  of  function,  93-197 
Diligence,  181 


Dissimilation,  71-81 
Dobell,  Sydney,  79 
Dorner,  25 

Economics  and  biology,  17 
Education,  Christian,  137 
Electricity,  97,  99 
Embryo,  the,  34 
Emotion,  the  place  of,  159 
English  people,  187-9 
Enriques,  Professor,  8 
Ephesians,  Epistle  to,  32,  95 
Evangelist,  the,  155 
Eve,  149 

Exhorter,  the,  155-9 
Exhorting,  155-169 

Faerie  Queen,  193 
Faith  quality,  the,  44 
Foodstuffs,  41-4 
Forms,  71-8 

Galileo,  111 

General  Staff,  the,  36-7 
Germany,  57-61,  152 
Gifts  and  grace,  95-8 
Giving,  1 70- 1 79 

Gravitation,  law  of,  139,  165.  217 
Greek  thought,  214,  217-18 

Haig,  Earl,  36 
Haldane,  Lord,  112 
Haldane,  Professor,  14,  16,  49,  67, 
69 

Hallam,  Arthur,  201 
Hebrews,  Epistle  to,  153 
Hellgate  Rocks,  161-2 
Hopefulness,  194 
Hutchison,  40 
Huxley,  46,  147 
Hypermetropia,  87 

Inge,  Dean,  22 
International  fidelity,  63 
Iwanaki,  Baron,  187-8 


227 


INDEX 


228 

James,  William,  11 
Japanese  opinion,  187 
Jewish  nation,  199-200 
Jhering,  von,  112 

Katabolism,  71-81 
Keith,  93 
Kepler,  146 

Law  and  Force,  51 
Law,  enforcement  of,  163 
Leadership,  180-190 
Legal  order,  1 63 
Localization  of  function,  88 
London,  124 
Love  of  God,  54-56,  102 
Lymph,  40,  67,  69 

Marshall,  Professor,  17 
Martensen,  55 
Martyrdom,  206-7 
Mechanistic  theory,  14 
‘  Mercy,’  the  word,  195 
Metabolism,  40-81 
Methodists,  155 
Milton’s  Areopagitica,  6 
Ministry,  1 22-131 
Missionary  Imperative,  the,  198-210 
Mite,  the  widow’s,  176 
Moral  reform,  163 
Morley,  Viscount,  73 
Murray,  Dr.  J.  A.,  83,  85 

Nerve-fibres,  90 

Organization,  20-39 

Parliamentary  representatives, 
124-131  ' 

Paul,  St.,  18, 29,  65,  67,  75, 83,  100-3, 
108,114  onwards,  148,  174,216, 
217 

Personal  equation,  172 
Personality,  173 
Philip,  St.,  104 
Philippians,  Epistle  to,  226 
Plotinus,  22 
Power,  peril  of,  99 
Prophecy,  114-121 
Prophet,  the,  117 
‘  Proportion,’  the  word,  119 
Psychotherapy,  10 
Ptolemaic  theory,  212 

Reconciliation  through  the  Cross, 
211-226 


Renaissance,  the,  168 
Reproduction,  198-210 
Resurrection,  the,  122 
Richter,  213 
Rivers,  William,  15 
Romans,  Epistle  to,  18,  95,  123 
Roux,  15,  82 

Royce,  Professor,  25,  28,  67 
Russell,  25 

Science  and  Religion,  147 
Seeley,  Professor,  186 
Service,  98 

Sherrington,  Sir  C.,  15-16,  84,  90 
‘  Simplicity,’  the  word,  171 
Simpson,  Professor,  79 
‘  Sittlichkeit,’  112 
Skeat,  Professor,  21 1 
‘Sluggish,’  the  word,  154 
Socialism,  166-7 
Soul,  the  new-born,  135 
Specialization,  38,  156 
Stephen,  104-7,  114 
Student  Christian  Movement, 
146-51 

Syndesmology,  27 

Teaching,  1 32-154 
Tennyson,  quoted,  32,  74,  142,  143, 
151,  201-2 

Thompson,  Francis,  64 
Thomson,  Professor  Arthur,  8,  11, 
19,  93,  95 

Timiriazeff’s  experiment,  47 
Trees,  45,  201  ;  life  of  a,  46 
Treitschke,  152 
Triple  Dynamic,  the,  123 
Truth,  56,  78,  147 
‘Twice-born,’  the,  11 

Universe,  the,  142,  212 
Universities,  Student  Movement 
at,  146-152 

Victoria  Cross,  207 
Vine,  the,  204 
Voltaire,  73 

War,  the  Great,  58-61,  208 
Way,  Dr.,  180,  212,  221 
Wealth,  172-4 
Welsh  Revival,  160 
Will  of  God,  88 
Wordsworth,  52 

Yew-tree,  201 


Date  Due 

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Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1  1012  01030  5367 


